Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 7-22-22

July 22, 2022 | 23 Tamuz 5782

Candlelighting 8:26 p.m. | Havdalah 9:31 p.m. | Vol. 65, No. 29 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Teachers ‘grapple with genocide’

Federation brings self-defense training to JCC

Pittsburgh rabbis attend DC ceremony in support of Safer Communities Act

Seton Hill’s Summer Institute visits Squirrel Hill

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LOCAL

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

T

Young Jewish athletes suit up for San Diego

Pittsburgh delegation readies for Maccabi Games

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security training events like the one sponsored by Federation.

Wright was joined by Mike Saldutte, a Pittsburgh Police officer who also works at Wright’s Gym. Together, Wright and Saldutte led the event through three major parts: a presentation on crime statistics and the mind of an active shooter; a hands-on self-defense lesson; and a final section on weapons awareness and disarming techniques. The event was broadly based on the Run, Hide, Fight protocol that is standard in active shooter response training.

The Federation decided to offer the course in response to the community’s input following previous basic active threat training sessions, Brokos said.

Training at synagogues, day schools and other organizations typically covers the Run, Hide, Fight technique, Brokos said. “But we don’t focus on the fight piece. That’s kind of where we leave class and we have people coming up to us saying, ‘What if I have to

wo Pittsburgh rabbis trekked to Washington, D.C., last week to celebrate the passage of a gun reform bill.

New Light Congregation’s Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and Tree of Life’s Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, survivors of the Oct. 27, 2018, synagogue shooting, attended a July 11 White House celebration of the Safer Communities Act, a bipartisan measure aimed at curbing gun violence across the nation.

The Safer Communities Act mandates expanded background checks for those younger than 21 who want to buy firearms; provides $11 billion for mental health services, including increased funds for school-based mental health programs; prevents people convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or felony from buying a firearm for five years; and provides $2.75 billion for crisis intervention and community-based violence prevention programs.

“It gave me hope that the government is starting to see this, and treat this, as a serious epidemic,” said Perlman, who has been a vocal advocate for gun reform efforts since the 2018 antisemitic Shabbat morning attack at the Tree of Life building. “I feel like finally — finally! — people are waking up and seeing we need to take action, serious action.”

Among the more than 600 people who attended the Monday morning event on the White House lawn were those directly affected by recent American massacres, including citizens and elected leaders representing mass shooting incidents in Buffalo, New York; Highland Park, Illinois; Uvalde,

Please see Self-defense, page 14

Please see New Light, page 14

 Dave Wright and Mike Saldutte of Wright’s Gym demonstrate a self-defense technique.

Photo by Ethan Beck Page 3

LOCAL Turning prose to poetry

Phil Terman and Larry Berg’s oral history project

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By Ethan Beck | Staff Writer

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ot everyone is looking for lessons in self-defense. But the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh wants to make sure community members have access to those lessons if they want them.

“This may not be for everybody, and we understand that,” Shawn Brokos, the Federation’s director of community security, told a crowd of about 50 people at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill on July 17. “But we wanted to make this available to people if they wanted to come in and really learn what fighting looks like.”

The Federation brought Wright’s Gym to the JCC to teach self-defense techniques, what to do in an active shooter situation and more to a rapt audience.

“Our goal today is to help make you more safe and to have a little fun along the way,” said Dave Wright, a former police officer of 27 years who has trained other police officers in use of force techniques. Now, as the owner of Wright’s Gym, he sometimes leads

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Headlines Teachers visit Squirrel Hill with Seton Hill’s ‘Grappling with Genocide’ Summer Institute — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

D

espite only viewing the Tree of Life building from a bus window while on a tour of Squirrel Hill, Shelby Denhof couldn’t help but feel moved.

“I’ll be honest,” she said. “I had a pretty emotional reaction to the Tree of Life synagogue, physically being there.”

Denhof traveled to Squirrel Hill with 20 other middle and high school educators from across the United States as part of Seton Hill University’s National Endowment for Humanities Summer Institute. The two-week program, “Grappling with Genocide: Fostering Empathy and Engagement through Text and Image,” is the result of a grant the university received from the NEH last fall.

It aims to “connect best practices in genocide education with contemporary global conflicts through the power of narrative,” according to promotional materials.

A Judaic studies teacher at the United Jewish School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Denhof previously taught English in the Rockford Public Schools District and is the engagement director of her synagogue, Temple Emanuel. She has attended various NEH fellowships since 2018.

Denhof came to Pittsburgh before the Institute began so she could spend time in Squirrel Hill. Grand Rapids, she explained, isn’t a Jewishly dense part of the country. She was excited to see what Pittsburgh’s Jewish neighborhood had to offer.

“It was a treat for me to go to Squirrel Hill and see the density of synagogues and the kosher grocery store and bagel shop,” she said. “This is something I don’t have. It

was important for me to come and seek out more of a Jewish experience in addition to the fellowship.”

While the Summer Institute doesn’t focus exclusively on the Holocaust or the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the program did offer some unique learning opportunities. In addition to the bus tour, led by Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center, participants spent time hearing from the 10.27 Healing Partnership’s Ranisa Davidson. Noah Schoen and Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Director Lauren Bairnsfather also discussed the oral history project “The Meaning of Oct. 27.”

“We watched some clips of the rabbi at the Tree of Life synagogue after the tragedy,” Denhof said. “I was listening to him speak about his community so freshly after the tragedy. It was something that brought me to tears and I had to step away.”

The teachers taking part in the Summer Institute represent a cross-section of public and private schools, according to Christine Cusick, who co-directs the program along with John Spurlock, former coordinator of the Genocide and Holocaust Studies certificate program at Seton Hill.

Squirrel Hill, Cusick said, is an example of a community working within a larger neighborhood to ensure it is not solely defined by the shooting at the Tree of Life building.

“The community is more than just the tragedy,” she said. “You have to look at the richness and history and the present ways they contribute to the larger community.”

James Paharik, director of the university’s National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, helped Cusick organize the day.

He said he hoped the program would help teachers make the Holocaust and other

many ways, what a functioning neighborhood should be.”

Rabbi Ron Symons, director of the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness, spoke to the educators who came to Squirrel Hill, explaining that the mission of the center, which opened 14 months before the Oct. 27 shooting, is dedicated to three main values: Love your neighbors as yourself; do not stand idle while your neighbor bleeds; and, redefining neighbor as a moral concept. p Noah Schoen talks to National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute participants at “Being with teachers from the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill on across the country, trying to July 14.

Photo provided by Seton Hill University use Holocaust education to help genocides more relatable. improve the moral quality of society by “I did a session about telling the stories teaching our youngest generations how it of the people who were involved either as is that they should learn these lessons was a rescuers or resistors during the Holocaust,” real privilege,” Symons said. he said. “When students hear the stories of Understanding the Holocaust, as well as individual people involved, it brings it to understanding anti-Black racism and anti-imlife for them.” migrant racism, he continued, is foundational He also hoped the trip to Squirrel Hill to embracing loving kindness in our society would place the Pittsburgh synagogue to help us live together in communities. shooting within the context of a growing For Denhof, who is working with her school pattern of antisemitism and extremism in to revamp its older-teen curriculum, the trip the United States and show what happens to Squirrel Hill inspired her to think about to a community that experiences a massacre reshaping an exploration of Jewish experience. stemming from hate.

“Not placing so much emphasis on tragedy “We hear about these racially charged as being the defining part of the Jewish murders all the time happening around people but rather embedding more of that the country, like in Buffalo, New York,” history organically and making that relevant Paharik said. “You hear about the perpe- to my students’ lives today,” she said. trator, and you hear about the victims, but The Summer Institute continues you don’t often understand the long-term through July 22, examining modern genoeffects it has on the community. That’s cides, including both the Rohingya and why we took them to Squirrel Hill. We Yazidi genocides. PJC wanted them to understand that Squirrel David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ Hill is a vibrant, functioning community, a really unique part of Pittsburgh and, in pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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JULY 22, 2022

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Headlines Pittsburghers head to San Diego for the 2022 Maccabi Games — LOCAL —

By Ethan Beck | Staff Writer

A

fter a two-year pandemic-related pause, young Pittsburgh athletes are headed back to the JCC Maccabi Games.

As the July 31 kickoff in San Diego approaches, Pittsburgh’s delegation is getting ready for the competition’s 40th iteration.

“The JCC Pittsburgh team is really excited because we’re back from a hiatus,” said Fara Marcus, the JCC’s division director of development and marketing. “We’re just thrilled for our Pittsburgh teens to go and participate in the games … It just helps foster strong Jewish identity, team-building, and lifelong lessons, skills and memories.”

Bringing together Jewish teenagers from around the world, the Maccabi Games are five days of athletic competition modeled after the Olympics. This year, 11 athletes comprise the Pittsburgh group, playing sports ranging from hockey to baseball.

If you’ve ever been in the JCC’s Robinson

Gym, you’ve likely noticed banners commemorating many years of Maccabi Games competitions. To field a delegation, the JCC often starts by looking close to home.

“It’s a really open recruitment process,” Marcus said. “It ranges from reaching out to the Jewish teens in our community [at the JCC], in the Pittsburgh community and places all over.”

For Hal Coffey, whose twin sons Zachary and Eli are playing basketball this year for Pittsburgh’s delegation, the games mean much more than just athletic competition.

“I hope they have the time of their lives getting to interact with kids, with Jewish kids, from all over the country,” Coffey said.

To “connect with San Diego and hopefully carry those connections on afterwards in the future” will be a special experience, he said.

For Zachary and Eli, who are headed into their freshman year at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, basketball and Judaism are easily interlinked; much of their early exposure to basketball and the Maccabi Games came through the JCC.

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Please see Maccabi, page 15

p Pittsburgh’s 2019 delegation celebrates at the Maccabi Games.

Photos provided by Fara Marcus via the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

For more information, call LeAnne at 814-720-2189

200 JHF Drive | Pittsburgh, PA 15217 | jaapgh.org p The Pittsburgh baseball delegation from a previous year

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Headlines Pair find the poetry of B’nai Abraham — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

P

hil Terman’s motto is that not everyone is a poet, but everyone has poetry in them.

Terman has published several works of poetry, including “The Torah Garden” and “Rabbis of the Air.” He has received the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience and the Kenneth Patchen Award.

Given Terman’s background and his life’s axiom, it’s no surprise that when interviewing his sister-in-law about her mother — a Holocaust survivor — he found verse in the narrative.

“I thought, I’m going to break this line; it feels powerful, I hear some music in there,” Terman recalled. “I wanted to capture her tone, and I started breaking the lines. I also used stanza breaks and pauses and italics for words she emphasized, trying to recreate her tone as much as I could on the page.”

Realizing that he had tapped into something more primal than other forms of writing, Terman began researching oral storytelling. He eventually realized that he was creating something between documentary and poetry.

Terman liked the format so much that

p Philip Terman

Photo provided by Philip Terman

he decided to continue to explore it, this time with the oral history of members of Congregation B’nai Abraham in Butler, where he is affiliated.

“Our synagogue has been around a long time, and it’s unique and very historic,” he said. “I think it’s the only one between Erie and Pittsburgh, and it’s kind of fading.”

Knowing that interviewing skills were crucial, Terman enlisted his friend and fellow congregant Larry Berg to help with the project.

Please see Poetry, page 15

p Larry Berg

Photo provided by Larry Berg

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JULY 22, 2022

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Headlines Fiber artist confronts the Holocaust in ‘Beauty and Terror’ series — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff writer

R

obin Bernstein’s fiber arts series “Beauty and Terror” emerged from her online research following the creation of a piece about Germany and the Holocaust.

“I started wondering if people were talking about this honestly,” she said. “I went online and Googled it. The top three results were all Holocaust denial websites. I was shocked. It seemed to me that there was a community of Holocaust denial. So, I made another piece, then I made another one. By the fifth or sixth piece, I realized it was going to be a series.”

One of the pieces from her series, “I Do Not Say You Are Lying, I Say I Do Not Believe You,” was chosen to be shown as part of The Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh’s Fiberart International 2022. Pieces selected for the organization’s 24th exhibition can be viewed through Aug. 20 at both Contemporary Craft and The Brew House Association.

Created in red, orange, yellow, purple and green string and wax, Bernstein’s piece was inspired by a 1943 meeting between Jan Karski, a Polish diplomat smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto and the Izbica Transit Camp, and Felix Frankfurter, a Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

p “I Do Not Say You Are Lying,” string and wax on wood

In July of 1943, Karski recounted the mass starvation, dead and dying children, beating and transport of Jews he witnessed to Frankfurter, who listened politely to the diplomat and courier’s story before saying

Photo by Robin Bernstein

that he did not believe him. The justice did nothing to help the Jewish civilians murdered in the Holocaust.

The faces of Karski and Frankfurter, as well as the date of the fateful conversation,

are included as part of Bernstein’s work.

Each of the pieces in Bernstein’s series includes a paragraph explaining the stories that inspired them.

Despite the ugliness of the subject matter, Bernstein said she tried to create the most beautiful works of art she could, spending up to six months on each piece.

“It’s thousands of tiny pieces of cut string that are pressed into wax,” she said. “The wax is holding the string; there is no glue.”

Artist Kirsten Ervin, a board member of the Fiberarts Guild, said only 45 pieces were chosen to be part of the exhibit from the more than 1,500 submitted. The works include artists from 17 states and 13 countries.

“It’s highly competitive,” Ervin said. “Only 3% of the applicants got in.”

The pieces were selected by a committee, according to Staci Offutt, the director of the exhibit.

“It’s the most historically, geographically represented international [exhibit],” Offutt said. “The work is from more places than ever before. Space-wise, we’re in two galleries. It’s been growing every year. It’s a beautifully laid out and installed show.”

Given the nature of Bernstein’s work, Offutt thought it made sense to partner with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

As a result of the collaboration, Bernstein, Please see Fiber, page 15

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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, JULY 24

Give blood at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills and help during the ongoing critical blood and platelet supply shortage. Donations take approximately 15 minutes. Visit donateblood.centralbloodbank.org to schedule your appointment and enter the code G0020005. You can also call (412) 209-7000. A $15 contribution to South Hills Interfaith Movement will be made for each blood donation through the Give Blood & Give Back initiative. 8:30 a.m. q

SUNDAYS, JULY 24-AUG 28

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. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q

MONDAYS, JULY 25-AUG 1

Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents its Zoom-only Summer Adult Ed Series. Learn about Israel’s military

history in this four-part series with Jake Novack, media director of the Israel Consulate, New York. Topics include the War of Independence, Suez Crisis, SixDay War and Yom Kippur War. 7:30 p.m.

For more information and to register, visit bethelcong.org/events/summeradult-ed-series. q

MONDAYS, JULY 25-AUG 29

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

TUESDAY, JULY 26

Antisemitism is on the rise again. It is perhaps the oldest hatred of all, yet, through the centuries, it has appeared in many guises. In the seven-part Zoom course “Antisemitism: A Brief History of Why They Hate Us,” Rabbi Danny Schiff will offer a succinct survey of the various forms of antisemitism and will consider what the past history of antisemitism means for today. $65. 9:30 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event/ antisemitism-a-brief-history-of-why-theyhate-us/2022-07.

Join JFCS and 10.27 Healing Partnership for Art in Community, an art-based mindfulness program for all who are interested. The group will explore ways making art can help regulate the nervous system, promote playfulness and imagination, and connect us more deeply to our bodies, emotions, thoughts and worldviews. Attendees will come together

in community as we explore different art mediums, share personal experiences and reflect on how art can influence us all. All participants must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. JCC membership not required.

12:30 p.m. Squirrel Hill JCC. jfcspgh.org/ artincommunity. q

TUESDAYS, JULY 26-AUG. 2

Chabad of the South Hills presents Kabbalah of the Aleph Bet, a ladies learning course.

10 a.m. $18 suggested donation. 1701 McFarland Road, 15216. RSVP to batya@ chabadsh.com. q

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27

In many ways, the Tanakh is a revolutionary set of texts. One thing is certain: Over time, the Tanakh totally transformed the way humans relate to the cosmos and to each other.

In the seven-part course Zoom course, “How the Jewish Bible Changed Ethics Forever,” Rabbi Danny Schiff will explore the revolutionary ethical transformations that the Hebrew Bible brought about … and how it truly changed the world. $65. 9:30 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event/ how-the-jewish-bible-changed-ethicsforever/2022-07-06. q

WEDNESDAYS, JULY 27-AUG. 31

Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful. Study the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman. 12:15 p.m. bethshalompgh. org/life-text.

Join Temple Sinai to study the weekly Torah portion in its hybrid class available on Zoom. Open to everyone. Noon. templesinaipgh.org/event/parashah/weeklytorah-portion-class-via-zoom11.html. q

In the rising of the sun and its going down,

We Remember Them.

SUNDAY, JULY 31

Join Classrooms Without Borders for The Ghetto Fighters’ House Talking Memory Series “Gross Aktion: Remembering the Warsaw Ghetto’s Great Deportation 80 Year Later.” This lecture will focus on the months leading up to the Great Deportation (summer 1942) and the days of the German Aktion itself. In this context, the grim reality of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, facing rumors of terror and mass murder, will

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be presented. 2 p.m. cwbpgh.org/event/ the-ghetto-fighters-house-talking-memoryseries-presents-gross-aktion-rememberingthe-warsaw-ghettos-great-deportation80-year-later. q

MONDAY, AUG. 1

Join Rabbi Alex Greenbaum for the first inperson First Mondays with Rabbi Alex in more than two years. Award-winning Mt. Lebanon High School teacher and former radio journalist George Savarese will present “The U.S. and the Chaotic World — What’s Next,” looking at the economy, global food and fuel shortages, surging anger and protests and the response.

In person and on Zoom. 11:30 a.m. $7. bethelcong.org/events/first-mondaysgeorge-savarese-and-lunch-multi-access. q

TUESDAY, AUG. 2

Join Chabad of the South Hills for a Women’s Night Out. Create your own glass-fused mezuzah cover and enjoy light refreshments. $36. 7:30 p.m. 1701 McFarland Road, 15216. Email batya@ chabadsh.com to register. q

SUNDAY, AUG. 14

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh presents Advanced Community Active Threat Training with Defensive Tactics.

The four-part class will address the mind of an active shooter, predator versus prey, situational awareness and survival mindset; explore basic self-defense, using techniques such as Krav Maga; explore weapons awareness and disarming techniques; and advanced defensive tactics, including team tactics and realitybased training. 12:30 p.m. Squirrel Hill JCC. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/advancecommunity-active-threat-training-catt-withdefensive-tactics-2.

Join the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle’s Book Club for its discussion of “The Finkler Question,” by Howard Jacobson. Noon on Zoom. Email drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to register. PJC

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JULY 22, 2022

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Headlines Bought or baked, Pittsburghers say there’s something special about challah

needed to alter the process a bit for the kids.

Preparing a challah that requires punching down, rising, punching down, then braiding and maybe punching down again “wasn’t going to be practical because of the different age groups I had,” she said. “I found a way that I could present them with the ropes of dough and have them braid it and bake it in 15 minutes.”

Although the routine and product differed from Freed’s norm, the outcome was just as good, she said.

“You can look at whether challah has egg brushed on its sides or how many times it should rise — and there are a million ways to make it — but I am looking at it from a nonfood standpoint,” Freed p There’s something special about challah.

Photo by arinahabichvia iStock photo said. The abridged version of challah-making was a way something else gets added, too,” Freed said. at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. She’s for kids to recognize “it’s Friday and Shabbat “There’s a ruach, a part of our soul, that made challah for years, but while working was coming, and a chance to learn braiding as a cooking specialist at the South Hills gets added to it.”

Freed is the in-house caterer and a teacher JCC camp last summer, she realized she Please see Challah, page 15

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

U

sing her late mother’s recipe, Anita Kornblit regularly makes challah.

Things are different, though, during the summer.

Without air conditioning in her Squirrel Hill home, baking bread heats the house too much. But with nearby grandchildren who are frequent guests, spending a week, let alone a season, without the Shabbat staple isn’t an option. So, well before sunset each Friday, Kornblit visits Murray Avenue Kosher and buys loaves made by Unger’s, a Cleveland-based kosher bakery.

Kornblit said she likes Unger’s plain version, and that her husband’s favorite variety of challah is the one with raisins. Their grandchildren also like raisins in their challah — though they prefer to eat the bread with peanut butter and jelly, sometimes even marshmallows.

For the Kornblits and scores of other Jewish Pittsburghers, eating challah with loved ones is a treat.

Making it is also special, Melinda Freed said.

“A lot of people will tell you that the act is sacred or is a mitzvah. And for people who make challah to have it for Shabbat,

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JULY 22, 2022

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Headlines Accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter moves to bar death penalty qualification for jurors

D

efense attorneys for the man accused of murdering 11 Jews in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018, have filed a motion asking the judge to forgo qualifying his jury for the death penalty.

In criminal cases where the death penalty is a prospective sentence, “death qualified” juries are comprised of people who are not categorically opposed to capital punishment.

In its 80-page motion, the defense argued

that screening potential jurors to qualify them for the death penalty would result in the elimination of Blacks, Hispanics, women and members of religious groups that oppose the death penalty, leading to a more likely conviction and death sentence.

“Death qualification of [defendant’s] jury will produce a jury that is statistically less likely to include legally cognizable groups opposed to capital punishment, is skewed toward conviction, and is more likely to

sentence him to death. This result is fundamentally unfair and violates the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” defense attorneys wrote.

The pro s e c ut i on will n ow respond to the motion.

Attempts by the defense to remove the death penalty from the case have failed.

Attorneys for the defendant offered a guilty plea in exchange for life imprisonment, but

prosecutors rejected that offer. And in 2020, U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose, now retired, rejected the defense’s argument that the Federal Death Penalty Act was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville, who has presided over the case since Ambrose’s retirement, has said the trial will likely begin next spring. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

Federation allocates $13.75M to local and overseas organizations

T

he Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh announced that it will provide $13.75 million to agencies and programs in Pittsburgh and in Jewish communities around the world.

The announcement came following the July 12 approval of the allocations by the Federation’s board of directors.

The funding will support “human services, day schools, programs in Israel and other community-building organizations,” according to a Federation press release.

The funds come from the Federation’s Community Campaign and a $900,000 local human services block grant from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Additionally, “the Federation distributes millions in dollars from the Jewish Community Foundation, supplemental donor gifts, government grants and other special campaigns — including an Emergency Relief Campaign for Ukraine,” the press release stated.

A record $13.85 million was raised by the

Community Campaign as of July 8, representing more than $500,000 ahead of what was raised last year by this time.

“The generosity of the community has already made this year’s Community Campaign the most successful ever,” David D. Sufrin, Federation’s board chair, said in a prepared statement. “The Community Campaign will benefit this year and next from the Federation’s recent MEGA MISSION to Israel, the first in 10 years. Nearly 240 community members visited Israel for nine

days in June to bond with other Jewish families, experience Israeli culture and witness Federation’s impact in Israel.”

“This year’s MEGA MISSION gave many of us the opportunity to experience firsthand how this support has touched lives outside of our local community,” Jeffrey H. Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Federation, said in a prepared statement. “The impact, thanks to our donors, has been positively remarkable.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

JCC to require COVID vaccines for children 4 and under

C

hildren aged 6 months to 4 years old will have to provide a one-time proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to access the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s facilities and programs beginning on Oct. 17, according to a July 18 email to JCC members.

“As you have come to expect from the JCC, the health and safety of our members, guests, and professional staff is our top priority,” wrote Brian Schreiber, the JCC’s president and CEO, and William S. Goodman, the organization’s board chair.

“Consistent with our mission, we remain

resolute in this commitment for as long as it takes our community to fully emerge from the pandemic. We are inspired by the Jewish value of pikuach nefesh (saving of a life) and our longstanding tradition that the preservation of human life takes precedence over other practices.”

On June 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that children ages 6 months to 4 years old be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna pediatric vaccine.

“We have intentionally provided a

prolonged window of time to allow adequate opportunity for all of our families to have their children vaccinated and to account for the additional two-week period following the final dose of each vaccination series in order for one to be considered ‘fully vaccinated,’” the email to JCC members continued.

Proof of vaccination must be presented in person, and can be in the form of the child’s vaccine card, a photocopy of the card, a digital version on a mobile phone or a record from the child’s healthcare provider.

“We recognize that not everyone will

agree with our decision, but it has become increasingly clear that our community’s health is better served when everyone becomes vaccinated and that a large number of unvaccinated people worldwide allows for the pandemic to continue and the virus to mutate,” the email stated. “Our commitment to community frames everything we do.

This decision is supported by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association.” PJC

and demonizes the state of Israel. This book came out in 2010; only in more recent years has the UK started to grapple with the open anti-Semitism in its society.”

for the meeting.

— Toby Tabachnick

Join the Chronicle Book Club!

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Aug. 14 discussion of “The Finkler Question,” by Howard Jacobson.

“The Finkler Question.” published in 2010, won the Man Booker Prize. From author Dara Horn: “This is a very funny book about middle-aged men fighting with each other and fighting

8

JULY 22, 2022

to maintain their self-esteem in pathetic ways. It’s very accessible. Sam Finkler, a popular thinker, media personality, and bestselling author, and his friend Julian Treslove reconvene with their former professor, an older Jewish immigrant from the Czech Republic. The book is about how Jews are expected to cooperate with contemporary anti-Semitism. To be accepted, Finkler renounces

Your Hosts

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

How It Works

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Aug. 14, at noon. As you read the book, we invite you to share your favorite passages on a shared document you will receive when you register

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What To Do

Buy: “The Finkler Question.” It is available from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting.

Happy reading! PJC — Toby Tabachnick PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines UN Committee Against Torture to review Palestinian Authority’s record — WORLD —

By Mike Wagenheim | JNS

T

he United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) will for the first time home in on the actions of the Palestinian Authority. Members of the Geneva-based body, which is a subsidiary of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), were scheduled to meet this week.

The committee will determine whether the P.A. is in compliance with the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and investigate instances of forced disappearances, violent interrogations, the holding of the remains of Israeli soldiers and other issues. The review will also address actions by Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip and is routinely accused of torture by international watchdogs.

“Evidence continues to emerge of widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held in Palestinian custody in the West Bank and Gaza,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told JNS. The 10-member CAT is meant to review

p Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in New York City in 2018

Photo by A Katz/Shutterstock.

all parties (174 to date) to the Convention against Torture every four years. However, this will be the first review of the P.A., which signed on to the convention in 2014 despite not being a state.

According to a spokesperson at the Israeli mission to the United Nations in Geneva, CAT reviews are considered quite

I n - Ho m e Care S e r v i ce s

thorough, marked by demanding questions by committee members. Prior to this year’s session, Ramallah submitted the required compliance report, which nonetheless ignores documented P.A. abuses or deflects blame for them onto Israel.

For example, the June 2021 death in P.A. custody of critic Nizar Banat, which led to a

wave of protests in which Palestinian police beat protesters, journalists, civil society activists and lawyers, is completely omitted from the P.A.’s submission to CAT. The Palestinian Authority, which is a party to other U.N. rights bodies such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has a habit of skirting responsibility in such forums, according to the spokesperson at the Israeli mission in Geneva.

“They usually take little responsibility and blame Israel and ‘the occupation’ for everything going wrong. CEDAW had, for instance, called them out on this lousy excuse,” the Israeli spokesperson told JNS. CAT is expected to review additional reports submitted by American, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs. These include Human Rights Watch, the Palestinian Coalition Against Torture, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Clinic on International Human Rights, among others.

Botswana, Nicaragua and the United Arab Emirates are also set to be reviewed.

In its own report, UN Watch charged that the P.A. and Hamas routinely torture human rights activists, women, members of the LGBT community, political opponents, Please see Review, page 20

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JULY 22, 2022

9

Headlines — WORLD — Barcelona gets world’s first Michelin-starred kosher restaurant

The typical menu at Xerta, a Barcelona restaurant that earned a coveted star from the Michelin Guide, reads like an haute-cuisine treyf banquet: non-kosher dishes such as lobster, squid and oysters, JTA reported.

Yet the restaurant has become a hotspot for Barcelona’s small number of kosher-keeping Jews. That’s because with a little advance notice, Xerta will prepare food according to Jewish dietary laws in a separate kitchen, under the supervision of a local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi.

The restaurant pursued kosher certification, which makes Xerta the only Michelin-starred kosher restaurant in the world, largely to attract Barcelona’s rising numbers of Jewish visitors.

Biden the first president to appear at Maccabiah Games

Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to attend the Maccabiah Games, known also as the Jewish Olympics, on July 14, JTA reported.

The audience at the opening ceremony of the 21st games showered Biden with affection as thousands cheered “Joe” repeatedly and shouted things like “we love you Mr. President” at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Biden, flanked

by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, waved a baseball cap

emblazoned with the letters USA for several minutes as the crowd cheered.

Biden, who wrapped up the Israel leg of his four-day visit to the Middle East, showed up at a bullet-proof glass box installed for him there just before the announcers welcomed in the American delegation of athletes.

But in a timing mishap, he appeared to leave before the U.S. delegation appeared. Biden and the Israeli leaders then returned to the bullet-proof glass box to wave to the American delegation, who responded to him by bouncing up and down and blowing kisses in his direction.

Organizers claim that the event is the third-largest sports gathering in the world, with 10,000 athletes from 60 countries.

Ashes of around 8,000 Nazi victims found in mass grave in Poland

The burnt remains of approximately 8,000 victims of the Nazis were unearthed in a mass grave outside the town of Działdowo, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance announced on July 13, JTA reported.

It is believed that the victims were killed in 1939, and most were likely members of the Polish political elite, according to IPN head investigator Tomasz Jankowski.

During the spring of 1944, in an attempt to hide the extent of their crimes, Nazis ordered Jewish prisoners of the Soldau concentration camp, where Jews and non-Jewish Poles were imprisoned, to dig up and burn the bodies.

The estimate of 8,000 victims was based on the weight of the remains, a gruesome

tally of more than 17 tons.

The camp outside Działdowo, which was renamed Soldau during the German occupation of Poland, was part of the Nazi plan to eliminate Jews, political opponents and members of the Polish intelligentsia.

Experts believe that approximately 30,000 people were killed at Soldau, but the true number has never been determined. A search is ongoing to determine if there are more mass graves in the area.

South Florida toddler dies after being left in a hot car outside a Jewish school

A Jewish community in South Florida is reeling after a 3-year-old boy died when he was left in a hot car outside a ChabadLubavitch school, where both of his parents are teachers, JTA reported.

According to local reports, the boy’s father found him unresponsive in the parked car at 3:45 p.m. on July 11, after another staff member at the school in Miami Gardens remarked that he had not seen the boy all day. Paramedics performed CPR at the scene and he was pronounced dead at Jackson North Medical Center.

The Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be hyperthermia, or overheating, and ruled it an accidental death. The boy was identified as Sholom Tauber, and an ABC affiliate in Miami reported that friends of the family identified the boy’s parents as Rabbi Menachem Tauber and Nehama Tauber.

Miami Gardens Police confirmed to CBS4 Miami that the boy was left in the car by his

father. No charges have been filed at this time.

A California university to rename library previously named after a Nazi sympathizer

The California State University Board of Trustees voted on July 13 to remove the name of an unrepentant antisemite and Nazi sympathizer from the main library on its Fresno campus, putting an end to the legacy of longtime former librarian Henry Miller Madden at Fresno State after an internal investigation, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported.

The building will be referred to as the Fresno State Library until a replacement name is chosen.

In a press release sent to the campus community, Fresno State University President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said he was thankful that the 25-member board voted the way it did, calling Madden’s writings “deeply hurtful and disturbing.”

“This is a critical and necessary next step toward healing for our community and upholding the values of inclusion and equity that allow Fresno State to thrive,” he wrote, adding that he will be forming a new-name task force.

The decision to strike Madden’s name from the library came after a task force put together by Jiménez-Sandoval recommended it be removed from the building, citing extensive examples of antisemitism in Madden’s personal papers. PJC — Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

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

July 22, 1946 — King David Hotel is bombed

The Irgun bombs Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, the British headquarters in Palestine.

Despite warnings, the hotel is not evacuated, and 91 people, including 41 Arabs and 17 Jews, are killed.

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July 23, 2002 — Knesset enacts Tal Law on Haredi draft

On a 51-41 vote, the Knesset approves the Tal Law, an effort to address the growing problem of Haredi yeshiva students avoiding military service. The Supreme Court rules the law unconstitutional in 2012.

July 24, 2013 — Sons of former chief rabbis win the positions

Ovadia Yosef, was chief rabbi from 1973 to 1983. Lau’s father, Yisrael Meir Lau, was chief rabbi from 1993 to 2003.

July 25, 1973 — Gold medalist Leibovitch is born

Keren Leibovitch, who wins four gold medals swimming at the Paralympics in 2000 and 2004, is born in Hod Hasharon.

She is paralyzed below the waist during IDF officer training at age 18.

July 26, 1967 — Allon presents West Bank plan

Yigal Allon presents a proposal for Israel’s retention of the Jordan Valley after the Six-Day War. The Allon Plan calls for settlements and military installations as a buffer against an attack from the east.

July 27, 1955 — El Al flight is shot down

Two Bulgarian MiG-15 fighter jets shoot down El Al Flight 402 en route from London to Israel after the Lockheed Constellation veers off course into Bulgarian airspace between Vienna and Istanbul.

July 28, 1845 — Reform Rabbinical Conference ends R abbis Yitzhak Yosef (Sephardi) and David Lau (Ashkenazi) are elected Israel’s chief rabbis. Yosef ’s father,

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JULY 22, 2022 11

Opinion Biden visit proves a far cry from Israel’s fanciful expectations Guest Columnist Lazar Berman

J

oe Biden’s trip to the region is an “unprecedented opportunity to change dynamics in the Middle East,” a senior Israeli official told reporters last Tuesday, a day before the U.S. president landed at Ben Gurion Airport.

The superlatives from Israeli leaders continued after Biden had touched down.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the visit “historic,” and President Isaac Herzog took it a rhetorical step further, likening Biden to the biblical Joseph “on a journey of peace from Israel to Saudi Arabia, from the Holy Land to the Hejaz.”

But the results of the trip were pedestrian, to say the least. And in some ways, the week should be a sobering wake-up call for Israel.

“The bigger the expectations, the bigger the disappointment,” said Yoel Guzansky, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Hours before Biden flew to Jeddah on Friday, the announcement that Israel had been waiting for finally emerged. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority declared that all civilian air carriers could now fly over the country. The Saudi statement did not mention Israel at all, but Lapid still called it “the first official step in normalization with Saudi Arabia.”

Biden cast the announcement in a similar light, calling it “a big deal ... the first tangible step on the path of what I hope will eventually be a broader normalization of relations.”

But the Saudis, at least publicly, were quick to pour water on that notion. “This has nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel,” insisted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, briefing reporters as Biden headed home.

Despite the over-the-top messages coming from official Israeli channels — perhaps not surprising ahead of an election — it should have been plain to all that Biden’s visit wasn’t actually about us.

“Biden had one central goal, and that is to try to temper the global energy crisis, through increasing production in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” said Moran Zaga, an expert on the Gulf region at the Mitvim Institute. “Everything outside of that in my view was a sort of decoration, an effort to divert attention to other places that suit the Bidenist policy — on liberalization, on peace, on rights, Palestinians.”

“Even when there started to be rumors about opening up the airspace, the question became ‘OK, and what else?’” said Zaga.

That didn’t stop Israeli leaders from doing everything they could to inflate the magnitude of the visit to Israel itself. Lapid and Biden signed the Jerusalem Declaration during the trip, which a senior Israeli official told journalists represented “an historic statement ... that shows the unique nature of what we have between our countries.”

Lapid even had the document framed and on Sunday hung it up himself in the cabinet meeting room.

But there wasn’t really anything especially new in the statement, which committed the allies to working together to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, continuing to discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations, seeking to expand the Abraham Accords, and fighting antisemitism — all of which was happening anyway.

Israel did what it could to keep Biden appropriately occupied while he was in the country, helping him obscure the true goal of his trip to the region. Herzog granted him a Presidential Medal of Honor, the same decoration bestowed upon Czech President Miloš Zeman days before.

Biden also waved to the athletes at the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games, and participated in a zoom call with the leaders of India and the UAE. That’s not to say there weren’t some poignant moments. Biden’s extended conversation on one knee with two Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem returned him to his younger political persona, a tactile, caring man with an ability to connect with the public.

His Medal of Honor acceptance speech

was warm and heartfelt.

But the hype around the trip and the minor developments in Israel-Saudi ties went beyond the typical liberties government spokespeople take around presidential visits. The messaging may even have harmed Israel in Saudi eyes.

“I think Israel caused damage here,” Guzansky lamented. “They inflated the Saudi issue with all sorts of leaks and briefings. It wasn’t historic, not in Israel and not in the Saudi aspect.”

“I think it reflects a lack of understanding in Israel about where the Saudis stand, what their sensitivities are, what their interests are,” he continued.

“They didn’t add anything to Israel’s diplomatic efforts,” Zaga concurred.

Right now, Riyadh has no reason to hand Israel — or the U.S. for that matter — any free gifts. Any gestures were made as part of a hard bargain with the U.S. After a relative decline in regional status as a result of the war in Yemen and the fallout from the 2018 Jamal Khashoggi killing, the Saudis — and especially de facto leader Mohammad Bin Salman — were interested in reclaiming their place at the head of the Arab world.

And they were the big winners from the trip, getting what they were after.

“First, from Biden’s visit,” said Zaga, “he kowtowed to them, he agreed to accept the Saudis as what he called protecting American interests.”

“Second, as part of the visit, Saudi Arabia hosted this big inter-Arab summit. And once again, she is the country that hosts, that takes initiative, the leader, the driver.”

The Saudis weren’t afraid to flex their muscles as well. When Biden allegedly started hectoring MBS on the Khashoggi murder, the Saudi prince fired back by asking about the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq.

As Biden flew back home, Israel was left wondering how close it truly is to normalization with the Saudis.

After last week, it doesn’t seem that close at all.

Despite the intelligence cooperation and converging interests, the current relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not analogous to the state of Israel-Emirati ties before the Abraham Accords. With the UAE positioning itself as a leading international center of culture and trade, Israelis were present at multilateral forums and international competitions.

Saudi Arabia is not the same type of country. There is not the same openness to the world or familiarity with Jews and Israelis. And the Saudi role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques means it has to be far more cautious about overt Israel ties without a solution to the Palestinian issue.

Other regional developments this week weren’t especially encouraging for Israel either. The much-discussed regional security alliance against Iran looks to be far less advanced than Israel would have hoped.

Mentions of the framework during the visit were exceedingly vague, a far cry from a Middle Eastern NATO. Even the UAE, the jewel in the Abraham Accords crown for Israel, put out a telling message during the visit. “The UAE is not part of any axis against Iran,” said presidential adviser Anwar Gargash, adding that Abu Dhabi is considering returning its ambassador to Tehran. The same spirit has been evident across the Gulf in recent months, as Arab countries cope with the reduced U.S. presence in the region by de-escalating with Iran.

The need to express enthusiasm over a U.S. president’s visit is entirely understandable. But Israeli leaders would do well to keep in mind that countries will craft their policies toward Israel according to their own needs and interests. Three countries may have moved ahead with normalization, but other potential partners are monitoring the benefits of the Abraham Accords while keeping a wary eye on Iran.

In the meantime, Israelis will have to make do with views of the kingdom from 30,000 feet. PJC

Lazar Berman is diplomatic reporter for The Times of Israel, where this first appeared.

How I learned to stop kvetching and love the Yiddish revival Guest Columnist Andrew Silow-Carroll

A

MHERST, Massachusetts — Josh Dolgin, the Canadian rapper and klezmer musician who performs as Socalled, was nearing the end of a raucous, crowd-pleasing set last Sunday when he paused to introduce a Yiddish song about a frog, “Di Frosh.”

“It’s a children’s song,” he explained. “But because it is a Jewish song it has a cruel twist.”

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JULY 22, 2022

I was reminded of the Passover ditty “Had Gadya” — perhaps the only kids’ song that includes a visit from the Angel of Death — but I was also thinking of my own conflicted relationship with Yiddish culture. Dolgin is part of a postwar generation that wants to remember and resuscitate the explosive creativity of an Eastern European culture that produced music, poetry, literature — in sum, a Jewish civilization. But the unimaginable losses of the Holocaust hang over the project, and a farbissener — a sourpuss — like me finds it hard to forget the cruel twists of Jewish history and, well, enjoy.

Dolgin was performing at Yidstock, the festival of new Yiddish music held here

at the Yiddish Book Center beginning in 2012. Some 400 people came to the center’s charming Yankee-shtetl campus over the four-day festival this year. The mood was celebratory, and why not: Returning in person after two years of pandemic, the (masked) audiences were primed for concerts, lectures and workshops remembering what Yiddish culture was, what it still is and what it could yet could be.

And, as it turns out, the pandemic was very good for Yiddish: Secular Yiddish institutions like the book center, YIVO and the Workers Circle clocked record attendance for their virtual Yiddish classes and lectures. Aaron Lansky, the Yiddish Book

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Center’s founder, noted wryly that a lecture on Yiddish poetry that might have attracted “a minyan” of 10 Jews in person drew more than 1,200 people on line.

I was able to feel this quickening pulse even in the half-day I spent at Yidstock.

Dolgin’s acoustic performance whiplashed from hilarious to poignant, from Leonard Cohen to Mordecai Gebirtig, the composer killed during the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. Mostly gray-haired audience members clapped along while 20-something students taking part in the book center’s summer programs danced in the aisles.

Please see Silow-Carroll, page 13

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Opinion Chronicle poll results: Heinz Field name change

L

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “What do you think of the renaming of Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium?”

Of the 296 people who responded, 79% said “I don’t like it”; 20% said “I don’t care or have no opinion”; and 1% said “I like it.” Comments were submitted by 100 people. A few follow.

Acrisure is an aggressive financial technology company with no personal relationship with Steelers fans and minimal connection to Pittsburgh. The name “Acrisure Stadium” is an unpleasant mouthful. I, for one, will keep calling it Heinz Field.

It does not matter at all to me which corporate entity uses the stadium as paid advertising.

What a terrible mistake. Surely there was

What do you think of the renaming of Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium?

1%

I like it.

20%

I don't care or have no opinion.

79%

I don't like it.

Hate it! I’m disappointed that either Heinz did not step up or the Steelers wouldn’t work with them.

I never heard of the company and then when I looked it up, it’s not even Pittsburghbased! What a shame! So, what’s now going to happen to the “red zone“ when the ball is within the 20-yard line?

Loz em gain! The new name is not a great ketch up. More like a kvetch up! I say, let’s bottle the whole issue up!

They can name it whatever the sponsor wants, but changing the official ketchup was a shonda.

I understand the business end. But I’ll miss Heinz.

Who cares as long as the Steelers are winners? PJC

I think it should be named in honor of Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof.

— Toby Tabachnick

Acrisure sounds like the trade name of prescription medication. a Pittsburgh-based company that could have done this.

It will always be known as Starlake.

Will continue to call it Heinz Field for all eternity.

Chronicle weekly poll question:

Has the economy affected your charitable giving? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC

The James Webb Telescope looks at the universe through the eyes of God Guest Columnist Benjamin Resnick

B

ack in December, human beings, a weird variety of uniquely frail, lithe and hairless monkeys, launched into space a new, $10 billion dollar telescope, 21 feet in diameter and, like many great temples, covered with golden mirrors.

The James Webb Space Telescope is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble telescope. It traveled a million miles from earth with a mission — the first fruits of which we saw last week with the photographs released

by NASA — that is almost unfathomably grandiose: to peer out (that is, to look back) at the moment when the first stars turned out and cleared away limitless clouds of primordial gas, seen as light that has been traveling toward us for 13.6 billion years.

Readers of Bereshit — Genesis — learn about a time when all was tohu vavohu — when all was formless and dark — and there is a strong chance that Webb will show us the very moment when something happened and then there was light.

We will be able to see that moment of creation. The moment when the first stars began to burn, unfathomable vessels of

Silow-Carroll: Continued from page 12

On the long line at the falafel truck, I chatted with Jake Krakovsky, an Atlantabased writer and actor who recently performed the puppetry for a trilingual film based on a Yiddish children’s story (itself drawn from a recent collection reclaiming Yiddish children’s literature). I also caught up with Aaron Bendich, not yet 30, who hosts PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

brightness that would create the carbon, the nitrogen and the oxygen that make up 86.9% of our bodies, which would later shatter to create our heavier atoms, which would combine with the hydrogen created during the Big Bang. All of this means, by some alchemy of thermodynamics that is, for me, still shrouded in darkness — or perhaps by some act of primordial grace — we are mostly composed of starlight, our mass coming from some mysterious vibration of immortal and timeless energy, echoing through the universe from the beginning of time.

This energy has existed from the moment when the very first lights went on and will exist after the very last lights wink out. When all returns to a formless nothingness, those little pieces of starlight that are me will still be there, perhaps joining in a cosmic dance with those that are you, forming something new, maybe something wonderful. These are and were and will be the very same atoms that now make up my bones and blood, and which — through whatever unfathomable, godly magic — fired electricity through my brain, so that one day, also out of darkness, I looked out on the world, saw its lights and colors, discovered the taste and fragrance of milk, came to smile and laugh and walk and speak and eventually (not me but others like me) grow up to build machines to look back in time.

We are the universe coming to know itself. We are the eyes of God peering out into endless darkness, lighting fires of imagination and ingenuity that allow us to reach into our bodies to make them well, and to travel to the great orbs in the sky, and to look deep into the past, with a golden vessel like the altar of incense overlaid in gold, burning through time and thick with the fragrance of memory, hiding its illuminations somewhere beneath the smoke. And we come to understand what and where and when we are. And we will see the moment that we’ve been reading out for all of Jewish history: “Vayomer elohim yehi or, vayehi or” — God said, “Let there be light and there was light.”

We cannot — and perhaps will never — be able to see further, into those 250 million years after the Big Bang but before the stars, when all was a dark, hot soup, unformed and void, tohu vavohu.

Like you, perhaps, like everyone in the world who has ever looked seriously into the thermodynamics of man, I don’t know what to make of all this. I don’t know what to do with the knowledge that I was forged in starlight or that the space between my atoms is empty, a vacuum, like the void into which, according to the Kabbalists, the Unending poured first light. I don’t know what to make of the fact that every piece of me has existed and will exist for all time.

And yet, it seems as though the fires of

my imagination are endless, that my capacities of love and hate, laughter and tears, are endless and abiding and real. And I believe that I am indeed looking out on the world through the eyes of God and, as the great Christian mystic Meister Eckart famously said, that “the eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”

I don’t know what to do with the knowledge that all the electrons in my body hum and create this divine illusion of being which is the same as the divine majesty of nonbeing.

But when I imagine myself one day returning to the stars — and when I looked at the new images of the universe released this week by NASA — I am indeed filled with a sense of wonder and humility and comfort and gratitude. Maybe someday we will build a telescope even more mighty. Maybe we’ll go back farther and marvel at the dark work of creation, the world before the letter “bet” in bereshit, the blank whiteness concealing and revealing all mysteries.

Until then, each year, we’ll roll back the scrolls, we’ll read the story again and, with our clumsy and marvelous fingers, we’ll try to touch creation. PJC

an old-timey Jewish radio show and runs a record label, Borscht Beat, that promotes avant-garde Yiddish artists.

Music from its latest release was performed at Yidstock by the duo Tsvey Brider and members of the Bay Area klezmer trio Baymele, and showed the possibilities of reinvention by setting Yiddish poetry to spiky chamber music arrangements. Tsvey Brider singer Anthony Mordecai Zvi Russell is on the cutting edge of Yiddish reinvention, drawing on his Black and Jewish identities

and opera background to make, as he once put it in an interview, “connections through time, space and history.”

Lisa Newman, the director of publishing and public programs at the Yiddish Book Center, said Yidstock is very much in keeping with the spirit of the center, which grew out of Lansky’s monumental effort to retrieve Yiddish books that, as their readers died off, were otherwise headed for the dumpster. Today those 1.5 million books are the nucleus of a $50 million enterprise

that includes public programs, exhibits, publications and training — beginning and advanced — for the next generation of Yiddishists.

“The things that I’m watching our alumni do are fabulous,” she said. “They went on to academic careers. They’ve gone on to become translators. We have a publishing venture. We’ve got a translation fellowship.

We’ve mentored almost 80 translation fellows

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Benjamin Resnick is rabbi of the Pelham Jewish Center in Pelham, New York. He previously served as the Rav Beit HaSefer of Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago. This piece first appeared on JTA.

Please see Silow-Carroll, page 21

JULY 22, 2022

13

Headlines Self-defense: Continued from page 1

fight?’ We said that we need to empower our community so our folks know how to fight if they have to.”

Wright and Saldutte explained that following rises in crime and antisemitic incidents, demand for self-defense trainings often increases as well.

“We’ve been doing active shooter events probably for 10 years off and on,” Wright said. “And unfortunately, we get the calls after a [violent] event.”

The first portion of the training included background on active shooter incidents, ranging from an overview of situations that could lead someone to commit violence, to the difference between a spontaneous shooter and a non-spontaneous shooter.

While a recent string of mass shootings has led Wright’s Gym to offer more security and self-defense training sessions, the Federation had tried to arrange a communitywide event for a while, Wright said.

“I think that Shawn got a hold of us about six months ago,” he said. But between timing issues and COVID surges, it took until this summer for the event to come to fruition.

For Squirrel Hill resident Mark Haffner, the session was a positive experience, even though it wasn’t his first lesson in self-defense.

“I took one of these trainings a bit after Tree of Life happened, and it was really

New Light: Continued from page 1

Texas; and elsewhere.

“It was the fulfillment of a dream I’ve had for a long time, to see a bill like this passed,” Perlman said.

Myers attended the event with his wife, Janice.

“I was honored to have been invited by the president of the United States to an event at

p Attendees warm up at security training.

helpful,” Haffner said. “The first one was good. I learned a lot, but I think this was even more hands-on than the other one was.

The two guys that were instructing were really good and had a lot of patience. They made it worthwhile.”

After the presentation and a series of questions from the audience, the chairs were cleared from the center of the room and Wright led the crowd in a series of exercise warm-ups. There was a combination of energy in the room, stemming from both the seriousness of the topic and the excitement of the self-defense training.

“It’s a really heavy and difficult topic, so hopefully people had fun,” Brokos said. “We

had some survivors here from the Tree of Life [shooting]. So I give them credit for coming and being an active participant in this.”

Now that the first training has been a success, Brokos wants to do more.

“I want to make sure everybody in the community who wants to come has a chance to do this,” Brokos said. “I really credit the community with coming out and being so engaged and taking it so seriously because, at the end of the day, we are each other’s best advocates and assets.”

As Wright and Saldutte taught the crowd how to throw a punch or distributed prop guns to practice disarming techniques, they emphasized how basic training is just

one aspect to being safe. Like keeping fit, Wright said, safety practice must be ongoing to be effective.

“The more people know about it and can show up in attendance, the better for them,” Saldutte said. “This type of training does work.”

The Federation’s next Advanced Community Active Threat Training With Defensive Tactics will be held at the JCC South Hills on Sunday, Aug. 14 at 12:30 p.m. To register, go to jfedpgh.org/ catt-august. PJC

the White House,” Myers said.

Perlman noted one attendee booed Biden when the president talked about the Safer Communities Act, shouting that the measure did not go far enough. People tried to silence the man, but Biden stressed that he wanted the man to have a chance to speak — and the president agreed with him that more needed to be done.

“I’m glad that [Biden] feels that way,” Perlman said.

Perlman stressed the networking element of the White House event. He and his wife, Beth

Kissileff, who also is a passionate advocate for gun reform laws, were photographed with Rep. Maxine Waters ( D-Cal.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), among others.

“I collected a lot of business cards,” Perlman said. “I want to see how I can further this process. I just want to find an existing format for my skills … to volunteer toward this effort.”

To that end, Perlman took a step forward when he returned to Pittsburgh, joining the advisory board of the Boys STEAM

Academy, a school that New Light’s “sister house of worship,” Rodman Baptist Church, is building in Wilkins Township.

“The message to me is that we’ve got to start to build up the schools for African American children who will not be taken down by gunfire,” he said. “They want to know how Jewish people build character through their day schools.” PJC

p Rabbi Jonathan Perlman with the Rev. Jesse Jackson

14

JULY 22, 2022

Photo by Ethan Beck

Ethan Beck can be reached at ebeck@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

p Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and Beth Kissileff with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Photos courtesy of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Maccabi Continued from page 3

“You can’t miss it if you’ve ever been in the Robinson Gym because they hit you with all of those [Maccabi Games] banners,” Coffey said, adding that his sons’ introduction to basketball came through the Harry B. Davis program.

“They’ve loved [Harry B. Davis] ever since

Poetry: Continued from page 4

Berg had a long career in radio, interviewing luminaries such as Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney.

“I’ve interviewed maybe 40,000 people in my career,” Berg said. “But when Phil came to me with his idea, I thought, ‘This is going to be really interesting.’”

Berg was intrigued by the idea of creating something more than an oral record that would simply read as a transcript.

The pair decided to test the new concept with Terman interviewing Berg.

“When he interviewed me as an experiment and showed me the results in poetry form, I thought this is a powerful literary form,” Berg said. “Somehow, the poetry emphasized everything and dramatized everything in a way I hadn’t seen before. It was my words, but to see it put in poetic form was really unique and different.”

In fact, the experiment worked so well it made Berg regret not having interviewed his grandfathers about their experiences living in England and Russia, or talking to his own father about growing up on New York’s Lower East Side.

Terman said that, like music, he wants his poetry to “sing,” as he has always been

Fiber: Continued from page 5

who lives in California, will be in Pittsburgh on Thursday, July 28, to demonstrate the technique she used to create her works and to discuss all 18 pieces in the “Beauty and Terror” series. The event, at the Brew House Association, is co-sponsored by the Fiberarts Guild and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

Bernstein will be introduced by Marcel Lamont Walker, creator of the Holocaust

Challah: Continued from page 7

and how to say the motzi.” But in addition to those lessons, there was also the recognition that “challah is the bread of our people, and it makes damn good French toast, too.”

At different points throughout the year, Freed varies her recipe. Before Rosh Hashanah she adds dried cherries or raisins as a symbol of extra sweetness for the coming year. Another departure from her traditional challah-making approach is based on a recipe PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

the beginning, and they’ve played all the way through,” Coffey said. “The two of them have even played a couple championships in Harry B. Davis against each other, and played one [championship] together on the same team. It’s fun watching them compete with each other and against each other.”

As for Thomas Levine, an eighth-grader at Community Day School, the fact that Maccabi Games take place in the middle of his summer — while Emma Kaufmann Camp is in session

— won’t deter him from competing.

“He’s been playing soccer since he was about 6 years old,” said Dory Levine, Thomas’ mom, who also once competed in the Maccabi Games.

“I was actually [part of] the first girls basketball team to go to Maccabi,” Dory Levine said. “We went to Toronto, and my husband was on [the men’s] basketball team.”

Thirty-six years after his parents took the court at Maccabi, Thomas will head to San

Diego. While it will be a new setting, it’s a sport that Thomas is used to.

“It’s a little intimidating, not playing with your same teammates that you’ve been playing with for so many years, but it’s a sport that they all love,” Dory Levine said. “When you are in the same religion, you’ve got just a sense of community and being together.” PJC Ethan Beck can be reached at ebeck@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

interested in creating lyrical narratives throughout his work.

“But also, I love to highlight and expose people who have interesting lives, stories and experiences to tell that people might be interested in but don’t otherwise get full attention,” he said.

Terman has written about a wide range of people, including prisoners and those working in homeless shelters. Everyone lives a poetic life, he said. But for now, he wants to shine a light on the poetry of Congregation B’nai Abraham.

“In this situation, I think there’s so much richness that doesn’t get shared or exposed to others, and we get to know them better and put them out there,” he said.

Berg said it’s important that the history of the synagogue is preserved, especially while there are still members who have been part of the congregation for decades.

“There are some people that can still remember 40 to 50 years ago,” he said. “We want to preserve that so that somebody, somewhere, will know that we were here.

This place is still a vibrant Jewish community, even as small as it is, but somebody has to know about this in 10 or 15 or 20 years.”

Terman agreed, noting that the congregation has a depth and diversity that is important to document.

“It’s incredible to see how people came to

Judaism, how they feel about Judaism, what it means to them and what the synagogue

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Center’s “CHUTZ-POW! Superheroes of the Holocaust” comic book series.

“We saw immediate crossover with our CHUTZ-POW! Series in the use of powerful visuals to talk about these lesser-known stories of the Holocaust,” Holocaust Center Director Lauren Apter Bairns-father said.

She noted that while fiber arts is new to the Holocaust Center, the use of art is not.

The Butterfly Project, which honors the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust, includes custom quilts created

by Louise Silk, and the Holocaust Center

has held community talks with Ted Comet, whose late wife wove tapestries to process her experiences of the Holocaust.

“The horror and loss inflicted by the Holocaust is difficult, if not impossible, to encompass in narrative form,” Bairnsfather said. “Art provides a more visceral outlet to express all the emotions that come with engaging with this difficult history.”

For Bernstein, who is Jewish but doesn’t know of any family members murdered in the Holocaust, the “Beauty and Terror” series serves multiple functions — both for

her and the wider Jewish community.

“The pieces are educational, but they’re also standalone aesthetic visual experiences,” she said. “They’re memorials. They’re honorific.

They serve a lot. They are healing for me because I’m learning about these horrible events I’m studying, reading books. I’m immersed in the content, and it’s so difficult to make the pieces but very satisfying. I want to communicate what happened so that people will know.” PJC

that includes butter, where the bread ends up tasting “similar to a brioche,” she said.

Micah Siva also varies her methods when it comes to making challah. Last month, after the Supreme Court found that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, Siva channeled her frustration by making challah that was shaped like a uterus.

On a different week, she made a cornbread challah in the shape of a cob.

Siva is a San Francisco-based registered dietitian and chef who often travels back to Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. She said there’s no right or wrong way to make

challah, or even enjoy it. And for her, the baking process is therapeutic.

Even if challah making allows considerable room for interpretation, Siva recommends using high-quality ingredients, as they do make a difference, she said.

Additionally, something fun that doesn’t require an absolute departure from a familiar recipe may be shaping the challah in a new and interesting way.

If interweaving strands of dough causes a little anxiety, “think outside of the braid,” she said. “You can twist it, roll it into a little snail, you can make it into any shape you want.”

But what happens if the challah turns out differently from what was intended?

That’s all right as well, Siva said. The process can still “be meditative and a way of honoring Shabbat.”

After all, making challah is similar to other formal Jewish practices, where doing something that “feels comfortable and authentic is the right way to do it,” she said. “That’s what I’ve found to be really helpful as a Jewish 30-something-year-old in America.” PJC

Example of poem created from interview with Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer:

A Good Match

My first love of Judaism was the intellectual pursuit— you’re always learning.

You’re meant to be learning your whole life.

But it’s really living life to the fullness.

Being a good person in this life.

Not because you’re rewarded in some future life, but because— it’s the right thing to do.

And you’re taking responsibility for yourself and I think that’s the way I always was.

And that’s why Judaism and I are a good match, as far as I’m concerned.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

means to them,” he said.

The pair will spend the foreseeable future interviewing congregants and creating poetry from their words. After that, if there’s interest, they might take the show on the road and interview members of other small congregations.

In fact, Terman, who retired from teaching last year, would love to make this a new career, although the economics make it difficult for him to continue the work for free much longer.

He worked with his current publisher, Mammoth Books, to self-publish the poetry he created from his sister-in-law’s interview.

He might follow a similar path with these interviews, he said.

In the meantime, Terman said he is attempting to capture the poetry in the stories of those interviewed and working to make sure the pieces he creates capture their voices.

At the end of the day, he said, this project shows that we all might be all communicating in verse.

“When we’re speaking, are we speaking in poetry or are we speaking prose? We may be speaking more in poetry than we realize.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

JULY 22, 2022

15

Life & Culture

From Brisket to Yankele: You can’t beat these pet punims The Chronicle asked its readers for photos of adorable pets with Jewish names. Here are a few to kvell about.

p “This is Cocoa, but she will be making aliyah in August and changing her name to Shoko (‫)שוקו‬.”

Hadassa Kamensky, Squirrel Hill

p “Crembo (named after a sweet treat in Israel) is a purebred ragdoll, which we did not know when we adopted him. We are pet sitters and he belonged to one of our clients, a rabbi, who was moving back to Israel and did not want to take him on the airplane.”

Lenore Wossidlo, Swissvale / Photo by Paul Richard Wossidlo

p “Meet Yankele, a 4-year-old mini-pin/Chihuahua. Yankele is Yiddish for ‘little boy.’”

Mickie Diamond, Squirrel Hill t “Tova Bina (Toe Beans)! She had me at ‘shalom.’”

Kelly Schwimer, Upper St. Clair

p “This is Frieda Jacobs Marcus, named after my wife’s (Maureen Wander Miller Marcus) greatgrandmother. She is a westie terrier mix that we rescued a little over three years ago when she was 14 months old. While we have lived in the Philadelphia area for 11 years, Maureen and I both grew up in the Pittsburgh area and raised our families here.”

Harold Marcus, Philadelphia

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JULY 22, 2022

p “Our 13-year-old border collie-Australian shepard mix is named Ari. We sometimes call him the Arizal. He was adopted from Heaven to Hearth rescue in Ohio.”

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Stephanie Marcus, Lawrenceville

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Life & Culture “We have three! And the funny part is they keep kosher (I cook food for them), they are excited for Shabbos and wait for us to say the Hamotzi bracha (so they get some nummy bread) and they stay in our bedroom every night to hear the bedtime Shema.”

p “Oldest (husky mix): Ori Chayim Yazhbin”

p “Middle child (cavalier King Charles spaniel): Tova Ahava Yazhbin”

p “Meet Herschel Blitstein the Bar Mitzvah Boi. He is a delightful bernedoodle that lives in Squirrel Hill.

Friend to all man and beast.”

Dana Blitstein, Squirrel Hill

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p “Meet Brisket Feldstein Lubowsky, lovingly cared for by the Lubowsky family.”

Aviva Lubowsky

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

p “Youngest but biggest (saint berdoodle): Eizik Eitan Yazhbin”

Rhona Yazhbin, Squirrel Hill

JULY 22, 2022

17

Celebrations

Torah

Engagements

Pinchas and the broken vav Rabbi Eli Seidman Parshat Pinchas | Numbers 25:10 - 30:1

I

have heard the following story using the name of many different thinkers, including Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (also known as the Chofetz Chaim): When he was young and idealistic, he wanted to change the whole world. When he got a little older and wiser, he realized that he could not do that, so he refocused his goal and aimed at changing his country.

Later, he again restricted his focus and narrowed it to changing his city. When he could not do that, he tried to change his family. Finally, he decided to improve

Pearl and Stuart Averbach of Squirrel Hill and Meri and Mark Sirkin of White Plains, New York, are thrilled to announce the engagement of their children, Julia Averbach and Gabriel Sirkin. Julia is the granddaughter of the late Ferne and Wayne Meadowcroft, the late Lenke and Wolf Glodowski, and Rosa and the late Edward Averbach. Gabe is the grandson of the late Myra and Sidney Sirkin and Phyllis and Jay Drossman. Both Julia and Gabe are graduates of Ohio University. Julia is the manager of member engagement at The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh. Gabe is an entrepreneur working in commercial real estate development. Julia and Gabe live in the Strip District with their bernedoodle, Benji. Gabe proposed to Julia in May 2022 and their wedding will be in Pittsburgh Labor Day weekend 2023.

will. He was a powerful role model and stood up for what was right.

G-d therefore said: “I give him my covenant of peace (briti shalom).” Numbers 25:12. The Talmud (Kiddushin 66b) notes that the letter vav in the word “shalom” is broken. Normally, if a letter is cracked or broken in the Torah scroll, that scroll cannot be used until it is corrected. But this letter is the exception, and is deliberately written this way.

Although Pinchas was correct in his leadership, and was rewarded by Hashem, nevertheless this broken vav teaches us a valuable lesson: Peace is a fragile thing, and difficult to maintain. Often we must go to great lengths to preserve it, through sacrifice and compromise.

Peace is a fragile thing, and difficult to maintain. Often we must go to great lengths to preserve it, through sacrifice and compromise.

himself. By doing so, he managed to have an influence on his family, on his community, his city and beyond.

The story rings true for many of us. It reflects our youthful idealism and concludes that one person can indeed change the world by beginning with oneself.

I like reading biographies of historical figures for this reason. From humble origins, many are able to take their G-d-given abilities and, through hard work, achieve great things. It amazes me the difference that one person can make.

Pinchas, in this week’s Torah portion, achieved this distinction by his clear insight and bold action. In the aftermath of the Balak/Bilaam episode, he saw the Jewish nation falling prey to the temptations of the Moabites and acted in accordance with G-d’s

From the fast of 17th of Tammuz until we commemorate the destruction of the Temples on Tisha B’Av, we reflect on how our behavior led to the loss of our holiest place and our Holy Land. This is a time to rededicate ourselves to Hashem and to His Torah. Most importantly, like Pinchas and his grandfather Aaron, we must also always “love peace and pursue peace”.

A person can change him or herself and the course of history — however, not at the expense of the fact that preserving peace is one of our greatest blessings.

Shabbat shalom. PJC Rabbi Eli Seidman is the former director of pastoral care at the Jewish Association on Aging. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

Stephanie and Teddy Davis of Pittsburgh are excited to announce the engagement of their daughter Leora Reichenberg to Geffen Waks of New York. Leora is also the daughter of the late Chaim Reichenberg. Leora’s grandparents are Larry Grotstein and the late Janet Grotstein; Jan Sedaka and the late Morris Sedaka; and the late Hilda and Oscar Reichenberg.

Geffen is the son of Israel Waks and the late Mindy Waks. Geffen’s grandparents are the late Tzesha and Zev Metzger and the late Yechiel and Yocheved Waks. Leora is a teacher at the SAR Academy in Riverdale and also has helped run camp Project Extreme for the last 18 years. Geffen is employed with the HASC Center. An August wedding is being planned. PJC

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JULY 22, 2022

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Same Staff, Same Location, Same Ownership, New Name Previously, “The Rapp Funeral Home.”

10940 Frankstown Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 www.rosefuneralhomeinc.com 412.241.5415

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Obituaries CHERKASSKY: Vladimir L. Cherkassky, on Sunday, July 17, 2022, passed peacefully at home surrounded by family.

Graveside services and interment were held at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com COPPERSMITH: Laurel Coppersmith, on Friday, July 15, 2022. Beloved wife of the late James Coppersmith. Daughter of the late Herman and Lorraine Rubin. Sister of Rabbi Dr. Rachel Adler. Devoted aunt of Rabbi Amitai (Rabbi Julie) Adler and greataunt of Michael and Maya. Also survived by dear friend and longtime housemate Kathy McCallister. Laurel was born and raised in Chicago. She earned her BA and MSW from Washington University in St. Louis. She was a medical social worker at several Pittsburgh hospitals and, for 22 years directed Alcoa’s Employee Assistance Program in Pittsburgh.

Until a month before her death, Laurel played golf and tennis. She volunteered and was on the board of several local women’s organizations, and was fond of animals, adopting many over her life. An outgoing woman, Laurel had many friends. She was close with her sister, and was a loving aunt and greataunt. Memorial service at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Avenue, Shadyside on Sunday, July 24, at 1 p.m. Visitation 12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. Interment was held at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Contributions may be made to the SPCA (pspca.org/tribute-memorial-gifts) or the National Network of Abortion Funds, 9450 SW Gemini Dr., PMB 16009, Beaverton, OR 97008-7105. schugar.com DEUTSCH: Sidney Deutsch, born and raised in Pittsburgh, passed away peacefully on Friday, July 15, 2022, surrounded by his loving children and grandchildren. He was 88 years old. He was born May 24, 1934, in the old Hill District of Pittsburgh where his grandparents had a small grocery store on Bedford Avenue. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in accounting and received a graduate degree in social work. He served in the United States Air Force in the mid-1950s. Prior to serving his duty in the Air Force, he married Carol Liener Deutsch in September 1955 and they were married for 63 years until her passing in December 2018. He then began his career at the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh where he worked tirelessly for Jewish community projects and activities.

He was transferred to Kansas City in the mid-1960s where he helped to found the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy of Kansas City, the first Orthodox Jewish day school in that part of the country. He returned to Pittsburgh in the late 1960s and he took the helm of a recycling plant in Tarentum, Pennsylvania; he owned and operated this plant until he retired in 2001. As a pillar of the community, Sidney was a board member and fundraiser for various organizations including but not limited to Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, Young People’s Synagogue, Poale Zedeck, Shaare Torah and the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. He is survived by his children, Naomi (Mark) Rubin, Rachel Katz, Tamara (Mitch) Haviv, Avigayil (Benyamin) Cweiber, Daniel (Shelly) Deutsch, and his PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

siblings, Blima Silverman, Rabbi Herschel Deutsch, Miram Dickman as well as his loving grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The funeral service took place, Sunday, July 17, 2022, at Shaare Torah Congregation on Murray Avenue, and he is interred at Poale Zedeck Memorial Park Cemetery in Gibsonia. Arrangements were entrusted to the Gesher Hachaim Jewish Burial Society.

Contributions can be made in his memory to Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh or an organization of your choice.

SILVERMAN: Edward “Eddie” Silverman, on Friday, July 15, 2022, dearly beloved husband of 65 years to the late Audrey Silverman, passed away peacefully at his home in Boca Raton, Florida. He was surrounded by his devoted daughters, Janie Rubin (Allan), Lynne Padison (Arik), Lori Silverman, Margie Halem (Mitch) and Marla Garchik (Steve), and loving family. He was born on Dec. 1,1929, in Pittsburgh, the son of the late Simon and Cecil Silverman. He is survived by his loving sister Lois Cohen (late Hershey) and dearly devoted brother Paul Silverman (late Dale). Eddie’s natural ability to light up a room ignited much love and admiration from all who were fortunate enough to meet him. Deriving pure joy, he embraced every moment spent with family.

He was the cherished and adored grandfather of Sydne Garchik Russell (Marc), Jesse Garchik Wright (Jay), Michael Garchik (Samantha), Harrison Halem (Courtney), Adam Halem (Amanda), Eliot Padison, Ilia Silverman-Esrig (Alex), Nora Padison, Sam Halem, Jared Esrig and Jack Garchik.

Loving great-grandfather of Blair, Eliza and Avery Russell, James Wright, Addison Halem, Mason Halem and Sebastian Garchik. Also survived by loving cousins, nieces and nephews. Graveside services and interment were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Eddie will be remembered for sharing his love for “song and dance” along with his kindness and generous heart. May his incredible zest for life and the knowledge that he has been reunited with his soulmate, Audrey, bring comfort to all who knew him.

Memorial contributions may be made to Autism Speaks, act.autismspeaks.org/goto/ marlaandjackgarchik. schugar.com SINGER: It is with a heavy heart that we announce Dale Singer, 60, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by close family and an abundance of love on June 28, 2022, after a 12-month battle with lung cancer. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh on Nov. 11, 1961, to the late Eleanore and Hyman Sloan. She attended the University of Maryland and earned a bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in health administration. During her time in college, she was active in her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, and the Panhellenic Council. It was at UMD where she met the love of her life, Andy Singer. They married and settled in Gaithersburg to begin their

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

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Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Wanetick Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jules & Lillian Katzive Edward M. Goldston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max Goldston

Mrs. Gomberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Theodore Marks Meyer Grinberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tiby Grinberg Amy R. Kamin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Honig Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Sarah Stern Elaine McNeill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meyer Melnick The Love and Rutman Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Love Jay Silberblatt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meyer Silberblatt

Contact the Development department at 412.586.3264 or development@jaapgh.org for more information.

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —

Sunday July 24: Arthur Abelson, Sara Rider Brenner, Martin Fried, Rose Zelmanovitz Gottlieb, Myra Ruth Edelstein Harris, Harry M. Jacobson, Phyllis Kaiser, Morris Mermelstein, Rose Monheim, Harold L. Neuwirth, Esq., Frieda F. Riemer, Norman S. Rom, Gilbert Solomon, Louis Tucker Monday July 25: Ben Block, Hyman Chizeck, Minnie Cohen, Harry Kallus, Paul A. Kleinerman Tuesday July 26: Ella Amper, Marian S. Beck, Samuel H. Bigler, Tillie Dentel, Harry Louis Diamond, Sidney Elinow, Celia M. Elovitz, Meyer Feldman, Theresa Fried, Fannie Gross, Jacob M. Hepner, Helene Rose Hyman, Harry Latterman, Samuel Lederman, Benjamin Love, L. J. Marks, Tillie Michaelson, Philip Recht, Samuel Sanford Rosen, Celia Schlesinger, Louis Shapira, Nathan Sniderman, Herbert Speiser, Rose Stern, Frank Sussman, Frank Sussman Wednesday July 27: Yetta Burke, Anna Goldberg Cody, David M. Fineman, Sigmund Fleisher, Sylvia Goldstein, Edith Lena Kaplan, Joseph Konigsberg, Harold Levy, Rose Liberman, Sylvia Weiner Markovitz, Theodore Marks, Samuel Recht, Sam Rosen, Sarah Rosenthal, Abraham Saffran, Mollie Slutsky, Isadore Sobel, Freda Tauberg, Bertha Harris Wolf Thursday July 28: Dr. Nathan Ashinsky, Sarah L. Blumenthal, Samuel J. Cramer, Charles J. Goldberg, Rae R. Granowitz, Leon Robert Greenberg, Tiby M. Grinberg, Louis Kitman, Milton Myer, Fannie Dvinsky Pollock, Jacob Stein, Alexander Udman, Joseph H. Wells, Rebecca Siegel Wilner, Mildred Marlin Wolovitz Friday July 29: Leonard Barmak, Yolana Berger, Saul Cazen, Ben W. Closky, Celia Cohen, Rose Freed, Mildred “Mitzie” Gold, Max Goldston, Jacob Herring, Max Levenson, Jacob Liberman, Harry Louik, Abram Morgan, Essie Rogalsky Rosenfield, Samuel Ruben, Hannah Rubenson, Sidney Schwartz, Ben Shapiro, Sarah Shapiro, Wilma Shlakman, Ida Shoag, Frances Siegman, Eva Simon, Abraham B. Slesnick, Edward Irving Stein, Jack Wolf Saturday July 30: Louis Gerson, Ruth Wein Gordon Herskovitz, Samuel Honig, Benjamin Lebby, Fay Levin, Charles Gershen Lisowitz, Florence B. Perilman, Sarah Rosenberg, Manuel Siniakin, Samuel Nathan Unger, Marcus D. Wedner, Louis M. Witkin, Meyer Zarkin

In Memoriam

Sidney Deutsch As a founding member of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association ( JCBA) Sidney Deutsch cared passionately that Jewish cemeteries in the region be maintained with dignity into the future.

Sidney Deutsch continued to support the JCBA’s mission throughout his many years of service as an active member of the Board of Directors.

The Officers, Board and Staff of the JCBA express condolences to Sidney Deutsch’s family on his passing.

Please see Obituaries, page 20

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May His Memory Be For a Blessing

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19

Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

life together. Dale and Andy have two children together, Michelle (30) and Josh (28), both of whom still live in the D.C. area. For over 27 years, Dale served as the executive director of the Renal Physicians Association (RPA), a national membership association dedicated to improving the quality of care for nephrology patients. Dale was also involved in several local Jewish organizations. She served on the executive committee of B’nai Israel Congregation and was the current board chair of the Bender Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Washington. She was also very active in her professional society, the American Association of Medical Society Executives (AAMSE), where she was a Fellow and served as board president. Throughout the years, Dale has made a significant impact on many people’s lives. She will be remembered as strong, dedicated, compassionate, confident, caring and incredibly giving. There is an irreplaceable hole in our hearts and gap in our community. She will be sorely missed SINGER: Mark A. Singer, on Saturday, July 16, 2022, passed peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones.

Beloved husband of Anna M. Singer. Devoted father of Priya Rachel (Dan) Crane, and grandfather of Isabella Kathleen and Daniel Sebastian. Loving brother of Barbara Singer (James). Stepfather of Andrew Peterson, Kristen (Joe) Gault and Jason (Jen) Peterson, and step-grandfather

Review: Continued from page 9

“collaborators” with Israel, and Palestinians who sell land to Jews. CAT published the UN Watch report on its website. UN Watch representatives were scheduled to present their findings to CAT’s 10-member committee during a private briefing for

of Kaylee, Brandon, Scarlett and Sterling.

Uncle of Justin (Tai) Papariella and Jaime R. (Jay) Greenberg. Also survived by former spouse Susan Kardon Singer, numerous cousins and three great-nephews. Mark was an avid Steelers and sports fan, playing basketball into his 40s. He loved traveling, the movies and writing poetry. Mark graduated Peabody High School in 1966, then proceeded to Duquesne University on a baseball scholarship. He was a wholesale sporting goods distributor and owner of The Team Room, which served local community athletic organizations, businesses and schools. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Abraham Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

Pines of Mt. Lebanon and UPMC Hospice.

Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Abraham Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, or Jewish Family Services of Western New York Refugee Resettlement Program.

Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com.

the Squirrel Hill Jewish Memorial Center, where she received many awards for her outstanding service. She was also a member of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Vera had many dear friends, loved playing bridge and mahjong, and was an excellent tennis player clear into her 80s. She knew how to enjoy life and have fun. However, the most important thing in life to Vera was her family. She was proud of her husband, children and grandchildren; and she sure knew how to spoil everyone with her famous brisket, corned beef sandwiches and sweet iced tea. Vera lived a long and joyous life, filled with love and laughter. Even though Vera will be deeply missed, we know she is truly happy reunited with her one true love, Milt.

A private family memorial service will be held in her honor.

STEINBERG: Ida German Steinberg, on July 15, 2022. Formerly of Stanton Heights. Beloved wife of the late Ralph Steinberg.

Daughter of the late Joseph and Libbie German. Loving mother of Michael (Nancy Leman) and Kenny (Terry Feinberg) Steinberg of Pittsburgh, and Richard (Beth) Steinberg of Williamsville, New York. Sister of the late David German.

Proud grandmother of Alexander (Kaitlyn Bailey), Elizabeth Maidman (Scott), Jonathan (Talia), Maxwell, Miriam Tillar (Ben), Anna, Zachary and Jorie Steinberg; and great-grandmother of Owen, Cece, Otto, Margot, Batya and Raphaella. Survived by cousins Harry and Irene Exler, Ilene Becker Schwartz and Hilda Goldhammer. Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Special thanks for the wonderful support provided by The

WEISS: Vera Louise Weiss (Goldspinner), age 96, of Safety Harbor, Florida, formerly of Pittsburgh, passed away peacefully on Feb. 14, 2022, in Clearwater, Florida, with her loving family by her side. Devoted wife of the late Milton Weiss, and loving mother of Lester (Lucy) Weiss and the late Jeffrey Weiss.

Beloved grandmother of Michael (Michelle) Weiss, Jennifer (Zachary) Sample, Steven (Rachael) Weiss, and great-grandmother to four beautiful great-grandchildren. Vera was a kind, smart and beautiful woman inside and out. There was never a dull moment when she was around. She shared a beautiful 72-year marriage with the man of her dreams, and it seemed only fitting that they be reunited on Valentine’s Day. Vera earned not only her bachelor’s degree, but also her master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a very rare accomplishment for women of that time. Vera was with the Pittsburgh Board of Education for 30 years, first as a teacher at Gladstone High School, and then as a guidance counselor at Taylor Allderdice High School. She helped countless children throughout her life, and everywhere that Vera went she would run into someone who knew and loved her. After her retirement, Vera was a very active volunteer at

Z L OT N I K : Ma r i on “Mimie” Zlotnik of Pittsburgh, born June 2, 1928, passed away on July 19, 2022, at 94 years of age.

Dearest daughter of the late Harry and Ida Surloff. Wife of the late Milton Zlotnik. Survived by her sons Cliff (Judee ) and Arnold of Pittsburgh, and Stuart (Donna) of Montville, New Jersey.

Grandmother of Zachary, Brian (Sonya) and Lindsay of Pittsburgh; Robert of New York, New York; Hayley of West Palm Beach, Florida; Joshua of Shelton, Connecticut; Ian of Houston, Texas; and Eric of Horsham, Pennsylvania. Great-grandmother of Patrick and Ezra of Pittsburgh. Interment at Beth Shalom Cemetery. PJC

human rights groups this week.

The UN Watch report details numerous instances of torture by the Palestinian Authority, including a 2021 series of arrests of activists and students who were taken to an infamous Jericho prison and severely abused. UN Watch also noted examples of P.A. torture of those accused of “collaborating” with Israel, including beatings, the pulling out of teeth and sexual abuse.

The report also cited the life sentence handed down in 2018 to AmericanPalestinian Isaam Akel for violating the P.A. law prohibiting land sales to Jews. Akel’s sentence for selling his Jerusalem property included hard labor. A U.S. official who visited Akel in prison confirmed that he had been put in isolation and tortured.

“We trust that our collection of evidence and harrowing testimonies will assist the

UN committee experts when they review whether the P.A. has followed through on its promises to eradicate the use of torture,” said UN Watch’s Neuer, who called on the Palestinian envoy to Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, to come clean about the P.A.’s regular use of torture.

CAT’s conclusions, which will include recommendations for reforms, are due later this month. PJC

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Opinion Silow-Carroll: Continued from page 13

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so that there will be a new generation. And we’ve got actors who are on Broadway and Yiddish theater.”

Seth Rogovoy, artistic director of Yidstock, said that while this year’s 10th anniversary festival tended to look back on its “greatest hits,” the festival has always been about the future. “All the creative and innovative music that’s gone on, the best of it has been by people who have studied old stuff. And then they take it to all these different places: rock and funk and hip-hop, all over the place,” he said. “We knew that we wanted to give a platform for creativity and people who are really not only perpetuating but moving the music forward.”

But is he ever preoccupied, as I am, by the mourning that is implied in the recovery and reinvention?

“There was always something inside of me that I didn’t know was there, and [Yiddish music] tied it all together,” said Rogovoy,

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

whose mother’s father was a cantor. “So it’s celebratory more than mourning.”

“Mourning is not a word I attach” to the work of the students, translators and musicians, said Newman, when I asked her the same question. “We work hard to make sure that they can do this because we recognize that we lost a generation of Yiddish speakers.”

As I stepped out of the center into a brilliant New England summer afternoon, I thought of the session given by Eleanor Reissa, the best-known Yiddish singer and actress of this generation. She and Rogovoy discussed her new family memoir, “The Letters Project,” and although her parents suffered in Hitler’s Europe, she doesn’t refer to them as “survivors.” She prefers “fighters.”

And perhaps that’s the way to think about the future of Yiddish: not in mourning, but in creative defiance. PJC Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor-in-chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, where this first appeared.

JULY 22, 2022 21

Life & Culture Retro Review: ‘Goodbye, Columbus’ looks at class through a Jewish lens — “The Graduate” comes to mind repeatedly — but also feels like a precursor to the textured dramedies of the 1970s like

By Ethan Beck | Staff Writer Peter Yates’ “Breaking Away” or the films of Hal Ashby. He seems to get under the skin he writing of Philip Roth — one of the of Roth’s prose, lingering on Neil’s face in great novelists of the 20th century — uncomfortable moments which helps estabhas one consistent problem: Few have lish the character. made good movies out of his books.

As “Goodbye, Columbus’” progresses, From 1972’s “Portnoy’s the conflicts between Neil Complaint” to 2003’s “The and Brenda widen. The film Human Stain,” directors subtly pits the couple against have struggled to take Roth’s each other as they start to distinct, funny portraits of experience the differences Jewish-American life and get that come with growing them to sing on the screen. up with money or without, But “Goodbye, Columbus,” and growing up in the city adapted from Roth’s 1959 versus the suburbs. breakout novella, managed Neil often acts as the to capture those issues Roth audience’s stand-in, which seemed most interested in — is where he becomes most relationships, Jewish culture compelling as a character. p Richard Benjamin in America, sexuality, class Photo by Bernard Gotfryd Public In many of the scenes, his domain, via Wikimedia Commons indignation for upper-class differences — and swirl them into a compelling narrative. society shines through, Directed by Larry Peerce in 1969, the film providing a thorny and funny dynamic. He’s follows Neil Klugman (Richard Benjamin) a curious figure, one who probably wouldn’t as he starts a relationship with Brenda be able to explain exactly what he’s doing in Patimkin (Ali MacGraw), whom he meets at some of these situations. a country club.

But where Peerce completely nails Roth’s As a college graduate working as a library voice is the ending of the film, a sharp and clerk, Neil has a complicated relationship quick encapsulation of the differences that with the world around him. He’s both the whole movie explores. Without spoiling

— FILM —

T

The film subtly pits the couple against each other as they start to experience the differences that come with growing up with money or without, and growing up in the city versus the suburbs. aimless and self-aware, intelligent and fussy, working class and overeducated. He couldn’t be more different from Brenda, who’s a student at Radcliffe College and living with her wealthy parents while home for the summer in Westchester County, New York.

The pair meet somewhat by accident, as Neil only goes to the country club because his cousin drags him along. He seems to resent the atmosphere of luxury and faux-affability, but bites his tongue about it when he asks Brenda out on a date. The two quickly become entangled and Neil becomes — somewhat uncomfortably — absorbed into her family’s dynamic when he stays at their house for two weeks.

Much of Peerce’s direction is reflective of other coming-of-age films of the period

the conclusion, it’s the sort of messy, dramatic situation that Roth’s spent his career writing about. The brevity of it is part of what makes it such a biting end.

Looking back at the film’s starkness, it’s almost surprising that “Goodbye Columbus” won the Best Adapted Comedy award from the Writers Guild of America. There isn’t a feel-good ending, and many of its characters are not worth rooting for. But in his attempt to get to the root of tough relationships, Jewish families and class differences, Peerce directed one of the few entertaining, honest adaptations of a Roth novel. PJC Ethan Beck can be reached at ebeck@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 22

JULY 22, 2022

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Community Temple Sinai celebrates disAbilites through the Arts

Kennywood is Friendly-wood

Temple Sinai held a Celebration of disAbilities through the Arts, which included dance, art, music and comedy by individuals with disabilities. The event was organized by the Temple Sinai disAbility Task Force, which was honored on June 17 for its commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

As part of an annual tradition, the Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh visited Kennywood.

Members enjoyed the park with family and friends and were even paid a visit by Kenny the Kangaroo.

p Friendship Circle members get ready for a Kennywood good time. u Chloe Riffle and Kai Arroyo stay cool by the fountain.

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh

p Samuel and Mara Kaplan, Lynn Rubenson and Diana Goodman Schiller

p Looking good in FC gear

Pursuing peace

p Marcia and Eli Kurs-Lasky

p Sharon, Noah and Elaine Lesgold

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Photos courtesy of Temple Sinai

p Catherine and Mark H. Loevner, honorary chairs of Rodef Shalom Congregation’s 2022 Pursuer of Peace celebration honoring the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, 412 Food Rescue and Just Harvest

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo by Aaron Leaman

JULY 22, 2022

23

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Kosher Fresh Bone-In Split Chicken Breasts

• All-natural poultry — whole chickens, breasts, wings and more

4

99

• All-natural, corn-fed beef — steaks, roasts, ground beef and more • Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit gianteagle.com for location information.

lb.

Price effective Thursday, July 21 through Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Available at 24

JULY 22, 2022

and

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG