Style Tortured life PPT production looks at abstract artist Mark Rothko
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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE thejewishchronicle.net november 10, 2011 HESHVAN 13, 5772
Vol. 55, No. 26
Pittsburgh, PA
$1.50
Kent State U. professor shouts ‘Death to Israel!’
The thrill of victory
BY MASHA RIFKIN JNS
Evan Kimel, president of the Keystone Mountain Region of BBYO, celebrates on ice during a broomball game Saturday, Nov. 5, in the South Hills. The event was a fundraiser for Amy’s Army. See Community story, page 13.
Hast du gezein in deine leben? Yiddish revival here to attract 2013 international conference BY TOBY TABACHNICK Staff Writer
At first glance, 25-year-old Jaclyn Granick seems out of place, sitting at a table in the atrium of the South Hills Jewish Community Center, the sole youth surrounded by about 20 senior citizens, most of whom are well into their 70s and 80s. But the amiable student from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva has come to this Sunday morning meeting for the very same reason as her elders: to speak Yiddish. “As an undergrad, I developed an interest in Yiddish and klezmer,” said
Granick, who moved to Pittsburgh last summer with her husband, a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University. Granick was a regular attendee of the Yiddish club in Lausanne, Switzerland, before she moved to Pittsburgh, having first studied the language at Harvard University. She did not grow up hearing the language at home. The only Yiddish speaker in her family is her grandfather, who is hard of hearing, and with whom it is difficult to converse. So Granick comes from her Shadyside home to join the South Hills Yiddish Conversation Club, which meets monthly. “There are not too many opportunities to speak Yiddish,” she said.
“It is important to me that there are young people to speak the language,” she said. “In some ways, speaking Yiddish is a resistance to complete assimilation.” While many consider it to be a dying language, Yiddish is being preserved, not only by scholars in universities, but also by laymen such as Sol Toder. Toder, who runs the club in the South Hills, says the main purpose of the club is entertainment. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It lends itself to so many funny and interesting things.” That seems to be the case. At last week’s meeting, members were following along with photocopies of a short Please see Yiddish, page 19.
Events took a surprising turn during a lecture at Kent State University last week when Ishmael Khaldi, a guest lecturer and Israeli diplomat, was interrupted by chants of “Death to Israel!” by a faculty member — Professor Julio Pino. Khaldi, the former deputy consul general at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, was invited to discuss his book, “A Shepherd’s Journey,” which chronicles his life as a Bedouin in Israel and rise to the Foreign Ministry. “The talk covered a broad range of topics, but focused especially on relations between Muslims Ishmael Khaldi and non-Muslims and the possibility for peaceful dialogue,” Kent State student Evan Gildenblatt said in an interview with JNS. Gildenblatt organized the event, which was co-sponsored by a number of campus departments and organizations. “Ironically, Ishmael harped on the need for respect and understanding to be present in order for such dialogue to occur,” he said. After his talk, Khaldi opened the floor to questions, and Pino was the first to raise his hand. “The whole thing was a minute long,” Jennifer Chestnut, executive director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at Kent State, told JNS. She said Pino was standing toward the back of the room, handing out material that encouraged people to boycott Israel. When Khaldi called on Pino, he launched into a tirade, asking how Israel could justify Please see Kent State, page 19.
B USINES S 14/C L AS SIFIED 17/O BITUARIES 18/C OMMUNITY 13 O PINION 6/R EAL E STATE 16/S IMCHAS 12/S TYLE 10
Times To Remember
KINDLE SABBATH CANDLES: 4:49 p.m. EST. SABBATH ENDS: 5:48 p.m. EST.