Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 2-17-23

Local communities react to hate-filled billboards — and one response is muted

The Branch celebrates Jewish Disability Awareness and Black History Month with Asha Chai-Chang

By David Rullo | Sta Writer

Cantor Michele Gray-Schaffer was heartened to see the community response to an offensive billboard in Butler owned by John Placek, a Worthington businessman.

The billboard message, which Placek has since removed, featured a swastika with the words “FBI CORRUPT & DANGEROUS THE GESTAPO.”

“From our end, there has been a lovely outpouring of support for us and we feel the love, we feel the support,” said Gray-Schaffer, the spiritual leader of Butler’s Congregation B’nai Abraham.

Placek’s billboard is only two or three miles from the synagogue. He owns additional billboards in neighboring Armstrong County that also have displayed controversial messages. In January, he told the Chronicle, “I’m not antiJewish, but I was trying to make a statement.”

Gray-Schaffer said that when news of Placek’s Butler billboard broke, the Butler Clergy Network decided to have various Christian congregations visit B’nai Abraham on several Shabbats as a gesture of support.

“It’s a sign of solidarity,” Gray-Schaffer said.

Pastor Leigh Benish of Hill United Presbyterian Church was the first to visit B’nai Abraham a few weeks ago with a dozen of her congregants.

Benish moved to Butler from Central Texas

two weeks before the massacre at the Tree of Life building. One of her first pastoral undertakings, she said, was to offer support to the Jewish community after the attack.

The pastor said that while she was aware that hate existed in Butler, she was surprised to see antisemitism manifested so openly on the billboard.

“The Jewish community in Butler is so small, and not prominent,” she said. “It amazes me, the hatred that people have.”

Placek has also targeted the LGBTQ community on his billboards. Benish said she was less surprised to see other marginalized groups targeted.

“Our mission statement says that all are welcome and that means to the refugees, and especially the LGBTQ community in town,” she said. “I’ve heard stories of what others have experienced, so to see hate emblazoned on a billboard and to see so much support behind it is not surprising.”

The Shabbat visits to B’nai Abraham continue on Friday, Feb. 17, when Pastor Joel Benson brings 40 members of Trinity Lutheran Church to the synagogue.

Even before the offensive billboards came to Butler, Gray-Schaffer worked to galvanize the community in response to a recent rise in antisemitism throughout the region.

By David Rullo | Sta Writer

In recognition of Jewish Disability, Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month, and coinciding with the start of Black History Month, The Branch welcomed Asha Chai-Chang on Feb. 2 for a webinar titled “The Intersection of Race, Disability and Religion: A First-Person Experience.”

An award-winning and Oscar-qualified director and writer, as well as an Emmynominated producer and RespectAbility Entertainment Lab alum and certified speaker, Chai-Chang is a disability advocate and accessibility coordinator with non-visible disabilities. She is the Jamaican/Cuban/Chinese/Jewish daughter of immigrant parents.

Chai-Chang said she embraced her Jewish heritage when she met others of a similar religious background while a student at Yale University.

“That helped me a lot with realizing, ‘OK,

p Asha Chai-Chang

Photo courtesy of The Branch

p Armstrong County Democratic Committee’s billboard Photo courtesy of Armstong County Democratic Committee

Headlines

TikTok Talmud influencer Miriam Anzovin coming to Pittsburgh

is everything and everything in between; it is profane and profound.

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

Pittsburghers seeking to spend Shabbat with a TikTok Talmud influencer are in luck. Miriam Anzovin, a social media star whose comedic reactions to rabbinic writings reflect a millennial zeitgeist, is coming to town.

From Feb. 24-26, Anzovin will serve as a scholar in residence at Rodef Shalom Congregation, Congregation Beth Shalom and J-JEP, a collaborative, pluralistic religious school.

The sessions are open to the public and will be Shabbat-accessible, said Rabbi Larry Freedman, director of J-JEP and organizer of the weekend.

Anzovin’s visit is a boon to the city, Freedman said; she has 26,000 TikTok followers and is a favorite of those who’ve seen her viral takes on rabbinic literature, the Book of Jonah or the Exodus story.

“What I love about her is that her Torah teaching is solid, and she makes this learning accessible in a way that speaks to this current generation,” Freedman said. “She has a unique voice and a unique style that reminds us of the value that texts bring to us.”

Speaking from her home in Natick, Massachusetts, Anzovin said she’s flattered by the attention and praise her content has garnered. Since last year, she’s graced the cover of Hadassah Magazine, been interviewed by Jewish Women’s Archive and became an artist in residence at Moishe House. She is reluctant, though, to call herself a teacher.

“I view myself not as an educator but as an influencer — and yes, nobody is laughing harder about that than me,” she said. “It’s kind of ludicrous.” Anzovin is one of thousands

worldwide who study the Talmud on a daily basis. The practice, known as Daf Yomi, enables participants to work through a corpus of rabbinic thought by studying one daf (Hebrew for “page”) each day during a seven-anda-half-year span. The current cycle began on Jan. 5, 2020.

Though Anzovin is known now for her hot takes on the Talmud, she said that nearly a year passed before she transformed her daily study into a social media sensation.

The shift to public sharing occurred following an interaction at her previous job, she said. While co-hosting “The Vibe of a Tribe,” a podcast produced by JewishBoston.com, Anzovin and Dan Seligson were speaking about their Talmud learning with Rabbis Avi Killip and Avi Strausberg, both of Hadar. Anzovin started riffing on a page in tractate Shabbat.

As she looked up from her screen, Anzovin noticed the two rabbis were crying from laughter.

Her comments regarding that passage, which deals with a case involving women’s anatomy, were no different than how she describes anything else she cherishes, she said.

“I talk about the Talmud in the same exact way that I talk about any nerd franchise that I am obsessed with,” she said. “If it’s ‘Game of Thrones,’ if it’s ‘House of the Dragon,’ if it’s ‘Lord of the Rings,’ if it’s any nerd pop culture thing that is happening that I adore or love — like a book, TV show, movie, whatever it is — I talk about the Talmud in the same exact way.”

Despite the commitment to personalizing her daily study, Anzovin understands some people think her videos are derisive.

“The thing about my work is that it’s not mockery,” she said. “The Talmud is everything. It is both about how to get demons out of your bathroom, to real serious things about grief and how to grieve — and those are really valuable lessons — to how to treat other people and also arguments over airspace. It

“So what I hope people would come to understand, and what I know that many people already do, is that my conversations, my viewpoints, my art that I create out of this learning journey is in a lot of ways quite in tone with the content I’m encountering. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s serious, but I view the sages as human beings. And human beings have flaws, and they also have amazing things about them.”

Anzovin pointed to a case in tractate Moed Katan, discussing whether a woman may wear makeup during the intermediate days of a festival.

The Talmud relates that Rav Hisda’s wife would apply makeup on chol hamoed, even though she was of an age where she already had a married son. Rav Huna commented that Rav Hisda’s wife was violating a law that only allowed “young” women to wear makeup during chol hamoed. Rav Hisda replied to Rav Huna, “By God! Even your mother, and even your mother’s mother, and even a woman so old that she is standing at the edge of her grave” are all permitted to wear makeup on the intermediate days of a festival.

Anzovin mined the rabbinic exchange in a daf reaction video and noted, “I am now a Rav Hisda stan, ride or die .”

The comment, which helped catapult her online presence, is an interesting parallel to the Talmud where euphemisms, metaphors and self-censorship are applied to matters involving intimacy, bodily functions or religion.

While saying “ride or die” was permitted by TikTok last year, Anzovin maintained that using similar language would now likely result in censorship.

Trying to “dance around the algorithm,” has required becoming more linguistically

Please see Anzovin, page 11

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p Writer, visual artist and TikTok creator Miriam Anzovin

Photo courtesy of Miriam Anzovin

Headlines

Rabbi Barbara Symons rethinks haftarah for the 21st century

By David Rullo | Sta Writer

Rabbi Barbara Symons wants to change the way you interact with the prophets.

The Temple David rabbi is the editor of “Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimaging Haftarah,” recently published by CCAR Press.

“The idea of this book,” Symons said, “is to free the prophets from being trapped on the bimah.”

Haftarah, she explained, means “conclu sion,” and is read on Shabbat and holidays following the Torah portion.

What we study and hear, though, is only a small segment of the prophetic voices avail able in the Tanakh, she said.

“If we think about it, not all accepted Hebrew prophets, of which there are 48 male and seven female, make it into the haftarah, partially because not all of them are in the prophets section of the Bible,” she said.

For example, Moses, she said, is remem bered as the greatest Jewish prophet, but he doesn’t make it past the Torah.

Additionally, weekly haftarah portions, Symons said, average only 10 or 20 verses. That leaves a lot of writing never heard outside of a class on individual prophets.

The new book allows for an opportunity to change the ways Jews interact with these underread writings, she said.

“This book is meant to be used in study classes, interfaith marches, gatherings, camp, which will hopefully further intrigue people to say, ‘Oh wait, this is interesting, I want to learn more about this,’” she said.

The anthology, which features 179 contributors, including several from Pittsburgh, offers new commentaries on each haftarah and includes short contemporary interpretations, as well as calls to action.

“This gets to the motivation for the book,” she said, “which is to, in some small way, reclaim the title of prophetic Judaism.”

Reform Judaism often refers to itself as prophetic Judaism, Symons said, but added, “it’s not actually so much about the prophets.”

The connection most Jews have with the prophets is through social action or social justice work, she said. The prophets were often quoted by rabbis working as part of the civil rights movement, for example.

Instead of focusing strictly on social justice themes associated with the prophets, Symons looked to the haftarah blessing for the framework that contributors should

consider when submitting writings.

Holiness, rest, honor and glory, were themes from the blessing Symons felt were important — so important she included the words in Hebrew on the cover of “Prophetic Voices.”

“We kept holiness,” she said. “Rest we turned into this idea of caring and concern, whether self-care or the way we care for others. Then, we turn to social justice. How do we have honor and glory, whether we see ourselves as the hands of God or partners of God. There are a lot of those components in this book.

“The calls to action go into this,” she continued. “Sometimes they’re very direct, sometimes they’re subtle. They don’t just let us work on social justice but also let us hear one another better, or connect to God on a personal, spiritual level.”

The identities of the writers who contributed to the book were as vital as their topics, Symons said. In addition to rabbis, she sought out cantors — voices she felt were important because of their work with b’nai mitzvah students and because they are often the ones chanting the haftarahs at synagogues.

The Monroeville rabbi didn’t stop with

Jewish clergy, though.

“We have the executive director of T’ruah and different voices from Israel,” she said. “The contributors to the alternative essays span the diversity of Judaism. There are people of different countries, age, race, LGBTQ and every affinity group.”

Symons made sure to include women’s voices, as well.

“The place women’s voices are traditionally heard is what I call ‘between the blessings,’” she said. “There aren’t women’s voices within our sacred texts. If women are included in the traditional haftarah cycle, it’s about them; they’re the object not subject. This is a way to bring those voices forward.”

The weekly haftarahs connect to the Torah cycle by theme, Symons said, but they don’t necessarily speak to modern Jews. Sometimes, she said, that’s because the connection between the parsha and haftarah is hard to find. Sometimes it’s because the connection is esoteric or because the prophets use metaphors that are archaic or problematic to today’s sensibilities.

The alternative readings will help people to find connections, using other selections from the prophets, Psalms and Proverbs, medieval and modern poetry, song lyrics,

Jewish thinkers, including Martin Buber and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and the Declaration of Independence.

“Prophetic Voices” also includes 42 haftarah suggestions and commentaries for American Jewish holidays such as Independence Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Day and Pride Month.

Symons said submissions were not rejected unless the alternative text was already used. A good thing, since some of the contributors had familial ties.

“You have Election Day, which Rabbi Ron Symons wrote; you have Tu BiShvat, which Ilana Symons wrote; you have camp opening day, which Aviva Symons wrote. You also have traditional haftarah, which Micah Simons wrote. I wrote in the acknowledgments how proud I am that my family is a part of this book,” she said.

Symons will be hosting a book launch event on March 26 at 1 p.m. at Temple David. “Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah” is available at propheticvoices.ccarpress.org. PJC

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

p Rabbi Barbara Symons holds “Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah.”

Photo by David Rullo

Hillel JUC brings experts to discuss Palestinian/Israeli conflict at Pitt

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

Ambassador Dennis Ross and former Palestinian negotiator Ghaith al-Omari joined students at Hillel JUC for dinner and a discussion about the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The Feb. 8 conversation featured insights from the experts on strategic imperatives, observations from regional visits and suggestions for future peace.

Both Ross and al-Omari are affiliated with The Washington Institute, a D.C.-based think tank focused on American foreign policy in the Near East.

Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Institute and served as special assistant to President Barack Obama, National Security Council senior director for the Central Region and as a special adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Al-Omari is a senior fellow at the Institute, former executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine, and served as adviser to the negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

Ross said that to comprehensively understand Israel, it’s important to address the country’s new government and its proposed judicial reforms.

“If you think about Israel, to say it is a vibrant democracy is an understatement,” Ross said. Israelis hold divergent opinions, but that

is a “phenomenon in all democracies internationally right now…What is happening in Israel is symptomatic of polarization, but also of the vibrancy of democracy.”

The ambassador pointed to Israeli voting habits — the most recent election had 71% voter turnout — as well as the hundreds of thousands of protesters gathering across Israel each Saturday night, many of whom are angered by the proposed judicial reforms.

One proposed provision involves the relationship between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. If passed, the Knesset could invalidate a Supreme Court ruling with a simple 61-vote majority. The problem, Ross explained, is that when a simple majority expresses its will, there’s the possibility of tyrannical rule by removing a separation of power stopgap.

In recent weeks, several foreign leaders have signaled to Netanyahu that undoing long-held democratic standards will damage relations abroad.

As the Israeli prime minister presses ahead with changing the character of Israeli democracy, he must weigh competing threats and desires, Ross said: Netanyahu needs the U.S. to be aligned with Israel on the issue of Iran; at the same time, Netanyahu wants to develop relations with Saudi Arabia.

“A breakthrough in Saudi Arabia would transform the Middle East more than anything, much more than the Abraham Accords,” Ross said.

Creating a formal relationship with Saudi Arabia would cement Netanyahu’s legacy, but it won’t be possible with continued flare-ups, he said.

Mount, this is an issue that creates an elec tric shock within the region,” Ross said. “If you suddenly legalize all the outposts, and it basically looks like you’re preparing for annexation, you’re going to produce a reaction.”

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco joined the Abraham Accords “because it serves their interests,” but now that the relationship has been established these countries can lean on Israel and influence its behavior toward the Palestinians, he continued.

Israeli-Palestinian relations haven’t been this unstable since the second intifada, al-Omari said, pointing to increased settler violence, the new Israeli government and the “loss of hope and faith.”

“But there are also factors coming from the

Palestinian side that are contributing to this lack of stability,” he said, “and one of these centers on the Palestinian Authority.”

“First of all there is no strategy,” he explained. “Peace requires leaders who have the ability to tell the public very hard truths, to sell their public very hard concessions. Frankly, I don’t see it on the Israeli side, and certainly I don’t see it on the Palestinian side.”

The Palestinian Authority was created to serve “in the Palestinian psyche at least for only one reason: to be a transitional government toward the creation of a Palestinian state,” al-Omari said. And because a permanent status agreement has not been reached, many Palestinians are experiencing “an

Please see Hillel, page 11

Alternative conservative newspaper to launch at Pitt

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

Hannah Margolis and a group of like-minded conservative students hope to broaden the discourse on the University of Pittsburgh campus by publishing an alternative newspaper.

The Pitt Patriot is readying for its digital launch, Margolis told the Chronicle. News and opinion pieces were submitted and are undergoing edits.

“We want to make sure that it’s up to a standard,” Margolis said. “We want to make sure that we come out really strong with our articles.”

Although the University of Pittsburgh already has a student newspaper, The Pitt News, Margolis said The Pitt Patriot — which won’t have a faculty adviser nor be officially linked to the university — will reflect a more “conservative” approach to international and domestic affairs.

Specifically, coverage of Israel will be more “balanced,” said Margolis, the paper’s opinion editor.

“We want to be able to see both sides of the argument, and we don’t think that’s been happening with The Pitt News,” she said.

An October 2022 opinion piece in The

Pitt News questioned the American media’s “objectivity” toward the Middle East and noted, “There are few cases with as much bias urgently needing more attention than that of the U.S.–backed Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Almost two years earlier, a January 2021 opinion piece called an anti-Israel group’s petition “misleading” after Jewish Voice for Peace sought an end to future cooperation between the Pittsburgh police and Israel:

“While the petition is framed as an antiracist fight for justice, its true focus is to incorrectly blame Israel for contributing to police brutality in America. The petition is filled with false assertions and demonstrates that these organizations are interested not in real dialogue about Israel or Zionism, but

in promoting incendiary campaigns that employ anti-Semitic tropes.”

Joshua Minsky, deputy manager of The Pitt Patriot, said the new publication’s coverage of the Middle East should be a welcome alternative to The Pitt News.

When it comes to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it’s “not a black and white issue; it’s extremely complicated,” Minsky said. “I don’t think there is a lot of fairness and balance given to the situation.”

Though foreign policy will be an important focus of The Pitt Patriot’s opinion section, its news division will address national issues, sports and local matters, Minsky said.

“We’re not going to shy away from anything,” said Dylan Mitchell, The Pitt Patriot’s editor-in-chief.

Whether it’s conversations about campus security, gender or critical race theory, one of the paper’s aims is to create “an outlet for conservative thought and conservative ideas,” he added.

With a goal of eventually moving into print, The Pitt Patriot will begin its run at thepittpatriot.com.

Initial funding was provided by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a network that supports more than 50 student-run publications.

Mitchell wouldn’t disclose the amount

received from the ISI but said the grant was “enough to kind of help us get off the ground and get doing what we need to do.”

Writers and editors are not receiving payment, and there is no photographer on staff, he added.

“We don’t have major donors or backers to please,” Minsky said. “We have a lot more freedom to say what we think.”

Rebecca Johnson, editor-in-chief of The Pitt News, said her knowledge of The Pitt Patriot is based on the group’s social media posts.

Seven weeks ago, The Pitt Patriot introduced itself on Instagram and posted a message seeking editors and writers to join an enterprise that “gives a voice to conservatives on the University of Pittsburgh campus.” It said the Pitt Patriot’s mission is “to promote the diversity of ideas and encourage a higher level of engagement in political discourse by questioning the dominant perspective on campus and educating the community on alternate positions.”

When asked about the new publication, Johnson said in an email, “I wish them well.” PJC

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

p Cathedral of Learning

Photo by Brian Donovan via Flickr

p Speakers Dennis Ross and Ghaith al-Omari, third and fourth from left, join students and staff at Hillel JUC.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

Beloved teacher and community stalwart Mina Kavaler has died

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

The date was Oct. 20, 2018, and Mina Kavaler, a bright-eyed Renaissance woman in Jewish Pittsburgh, was about to give a speech on her 90th birthday.

“One of the caregivers who comes into Weinberg Terrace says to me each day, ‘Have a blessed day, Mina,’” she began. “I want to tell you how many blessed days have made up my life these 90 years.”

Kavaler, who died on Jan. 29 at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas at age 94, lived a life fuller than most. A veteran Pittsburgh Public Schools math teacher at Reizenstein Middle School, Kavaler taught Billy Porter and tutored Andy Warhol. To paraphrase her family, many college journeys began in the 1960s and ‘70s at Kavaler’s Squirrel Hill kitchen table, studying for SATs.

Kavaler was the president of her University of Pittsburgh sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi, and an institution at the synagogue where she worshipped every Friday night, Rodef Shalom Congregation. She was passionate about social justice before it was called that, was active in Pittsburgh’s NAACP and marched for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She had a decades-long “second career” working the concierge desk at Weinberg Terrace, where many joked she was the mayor of the place.

“Mina’s 24 years of unwavering devotion still impacts our community today as we mourn her recent passing,” said Pearl Averbach, Weinberg Terrace’s executive director. “Mina, who was a lifelong teacher, demonstrated to our community of Weinberg Terrace the values of commitment, integrity and compassion. Every day, she committed her time to our residents and staff of Weinberg Terrace. She greeted each resident, visitor and staff member with integrity, offering a kind word or assistance and her compassion and love for our community brought her back every day.

“Her photo continues to sit on the wall at our front desk,” Averbach added. “We know she is still watching us and still guiding us from afar.”

Above all, though, she was a wife to Vigdor

— “Vig,” to whom she was married for more than 45 years, until his death in 1996 — and a mom to John and Marti.

“The luckiest day of my life was the day I got adopted by my mom and my dad,” said John Kavaler, who grew up in Pennsylvania and lives in Texas. “They raised twins and provided us with everything under the sun — we didn’t want for anything.”

Kavaler met Vig, the love of her life, at Pitt, where she was a massive supporter of all school sports, keeping score at the basketball games and attending every Pitt football game.

It was at Pitt, her family-written obituary said, that she met many of her closest friends — friends whose bonds lasted, almost quite literally, a lifetime. More than 150 friends and family attended Kavaler’s funeral.

“From the group who had season tickets to Pitt football to the poker club crowd to her travel friends, Mina loved them all,” the obituary read. “Being Mina’s friend meant you were always available for a marathon late-night phone call and a ‘let’s go!’ attitude.”

“What my mother was really fabulous at was collecting amazing people,” said Marti Fischer, Kavaler’s daughter, who was raised in Squirrel Hill and lives in New York City. “I mean, at Reizenstein [Middle School], she had a group of teachers who showed up at her funeral, all these years later. They even danced with me at my wedding!”

“She was consummate at keeping relationships going,” Fischer added, “and all without social media, mind you.”

Kavaler headed the Sisterhood at Rodef Shalom, where her husband was the executive director. There, she spent hours worshipping, celebrating life events — and volunteering.

“Mina was quite a personality,” said Rabbi Emeritus Walter Jacob of Rodef Shalom. “She continued to be interested in things long after other people had stopped.”

“She was special because she had a broad range of interests and lots of people that she knew,” he added. “She was very spirited.”

But, was it true that Kavaler pushed repeatedly to set the rabbi up with nice, Jewish girls when he arrived at Rodef Shalom in 1955

Please see Kavaler, page 7

p Mina Kavaler celebrates her birthday at Weinberg Terrace Photo courtesy of Marti Fischer

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.

FRIDAY, FEB. 17 – FEB. 28

ZOA Pittsburgh is now accepting applications for its Scholarship to Israel Program from any local Jewish teen who will be a junior or senior in high school in September of 2023 and is participating in a qualified, structured, study trip to Israel. Applicants will be evaluated on their involvement in Jewish organizations, volunteerism and on an essay about Zionism and Israel. Three $1,000 scholarships will be awarded. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 28. For information and applications, contact ZOA Executive Director Stuart Pavilack at stuart.pavilack@zoa.org or 304-639-1758.

FRIDAY, FEB. 17 – SATURDAY, FEB. 18

Join the National Council of Jewish Women for the first Repro Shabbat since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. jewsforabortionaccess. org/reproshabbat.

SATURDAY, FEB. 18

Celebrate Sisterhood Shabbat with Congregation Beth Shalom as they honor Helen Feder and Shiri Steindel Friedman. Special guest speaker is Rabbi Rachel Adler. 9:15 a.m. bethshalompgh.org.

SUNDAY, FEB. 19

Join Chabad of the South Hills for a Jewish Comedy Night featuring comedian Robert Cait. Open bar and hors d’oeuvres. 7 p.m. $54 adult/$100 couple. Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main St. chabadsh.com/comedy.

SUNDAYS, FEB. 19 – MARCH 19

Join a lay-led online Parashah study group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

SUNDAYS, FEB. 19 – DEC. 4

Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for its Men’s Tefillin Club. Enjoy bagels, lox and tefillin on the first Sunday of the month. 8:30 a.m. chabadpgh.com.

MONDAYS, FEB. 20; MARCH 6

Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership in the South Hills for Arts in the Community, a collaborative series of therapeutic art workshops with JFCS. This art-based mindfulness program is free and open 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 our personal experiences, and reflect on how art can influence us all. South Hills JCC, 345 Kane Blvd. Register at forms.gle/ qPu933puGg5fQQK2A.

MONDAYS, FEB. 20 –MARCH 20

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

MONDAYS, FEB. 20 – MAY 15

Understanding the Torah and what it asks of us is one of the most important things a Jew can learn. But most Torah classes begin in Genesis and never finish the first book. If you want a comprehensive overview of the whole Torah, Torah 1 is the course for you. In the first year of this two-year Zoom course, Rabbi Danny Schiff will teach Genesis, Exodus and the first half of

Leviticus. In the second year, he will complete Leviticus and cover Numbers and Deuteronomy. $225. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh. org/torah-1.

TUESDAYS, FEB. 21 – MARCH 21

Join Temple Sinai for a weekly Talmud class with Rabbi Daniel Fellman. Noon. On site and online. For more information and for the Zoom link, contact Temple Sinai at 412-421-9715.

TUESDAYS, FEB. 21 – MAY 2

In “Israel Literature as a Window to Israel Society,” Rabbi Danny Schiff will facilitate an encounter with Israeli society through the pens of Israel’s leading writers, discovering voices that are original, contemporary and honest. This 10-part Melton course takes you on a literary journey offering a fresh examination of the ever-relevant issues faced by Israeli writers. Together, learners will read poetry and prose that is challenging and self-critical, gaining insights into the Jewish national psyche. 9:30 a.m. $160. jewishpgh.org/event/ israeli-literature-as-a-window-to-israelisociety/2023-02-07.

TUESDAYS, FEB. 21 – DEC. 26

Led by a certified yoga teacher, yoga class at Temple Sinai is welcome to all levels. No experience necessary. 16 and older. $15. Register at templesinaipgh.org.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22

Enjoy a tasty lunch while exploring meaningful messages from the month of Adar with Chani Altein at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Ladies Lunch and Learn. Noon. $18. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

U.S. Law and Criminal Justice: From the Community Perspective, a three-session community course, geared to lay people, will support learners in their understanding of the U.S. criminal legal process, the systems of justice, and criminal trials. The information will help the community understand what goes on in the criminal courts, how trials work, what justice can look like and how we might attain it, and the special features and procedures of death penalty cases. Each session, taught by Professor David Harris of Pitt’s School of Law, will present on a different facet of the justice system. 6:30 p.m. In-person and virtual. 10.27 Healing Partnership Suite, third floor of the Jewish Community Center, 5738 Forbes Ave., 15217. 1027healingpartnership.org/ series/u-s-law-and-criminal-justice-from-thecommunity-perspective.

Hadassah Greater Detroit invites you to “Beyond Shtisel: A Closer Look at the Hasidic World,” a four-part virtual series learning about different Hasidic communities, discussing some provocative issues and viewing videos of Hasidim in their home environments. Gain an understanding of what the life of Hasidim is really like. 7 p.m. $10 per session or $35 for all four sessions. hadassahmidwest.org/GDShtisel.

Women are invited to join Chabad of Squirrel Hill on Zoom for a Rosh Chodesh gathering and explore meaningful messages for the month of Adar. 7:30 p.m. chabadpgh.com.

WEDNESDAYS, FEB. 22 – MARCH 2

Join Chabad of the South Hills for “Book Smart,” a six-part page-turner that courses through Judaism’s most important titles and the authors who inscribed them. From the Five Books of Moses to the 63 tractates of the Talmud, Book Smart proves that we are called the People of the Book for a reason. 7:20 p.m. At Chabad of the South Hills, 1701 McFarland Road or Zoom. chabadsh.com/civicrm/event/info.

WEDNESDAYS, FEB.22 – APRIL 19

Participate in weekly gentle yoga with a skilled and caring yoga instructor experienced in trauma-informed care. Experience an hour of gentle and calming yoga and learn yoga you can do at home and in stressful situations, including while seated. 3 p.m. 10.27 Healing Partnership suite inside the Squirrel Hill JCC. Facilitated by Susie Balcom and open to everyone. Register here: https://forms.gle/ JQtgrutJyByaMM5K6.

WEDNESDAYS, FEB. 22 – MAY 24

Registration is now open for “Melton Core 1: Rhythms and Purposes of Jewish Living.” This 25-lesson course will take you through the year’s cycle — the life cycle traditions and practices that bind us together. Explore not just the what is and how is of Jewish living, but the why is that go with them. 7 p.m. $300 per person, per year (25 sessions), includes all books and materials. Virtual. foundation.jewishpgh.org/ melton-core-1.

WEDNESDAYS, FEB. 22 – DEC. 27

Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.

THURSDAYS, FEB. 23 – MAY 17

In the new 10-part Zoom course, “Sacks: To Heal A Fractured World,” Rabbi Danny Schiff will explore “To Heal a Fractured World,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book on the nature of Jewish responsibility for the broader world. Students will be invited to read this pivotal book and to discuss its contents in order to arrive at a better understanding of the views of Rabbi Sacks on the goals and vision of Judaism. 9:30 a.m. $145 for all 10 sessions. jewishpgh.org/event/sacks-toheal-a-fractured-world/2023-02-2.

THURSDAY, FEB. 23

Tammy Hepps, historian of the local Jewish community, and Dan Bouk, historian of science, will use the publication of Bouk’s “Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them” as an opportunity for the wide-ranging discussion “Data, Democracy, and the Census: History and Genealogy in Conversation.” The two will look at the ways seemingly bland statistics of the census bureau are actually a rich trove of research material for data scientists and everyday Americans alike. They will demonstrate how close-reading historical census data can acknowledge and honor lives lived at the margins of U.S. society, whether those lives belonged to Jewish people in Homestead or queer folk in Greenwich Village. 5 p.m. Kresge Theater, College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, 15213.

Join the Jewish Fertility Foundation for its Kickoff Event, an evening of desserts, drinks and celebration. Free. 7 p.m. JCC Pittsburgh, Levinson Hall. jewishfertilityfoundation. org/KICKOFF.

SUNDAY, FEB. 26

Answer the call and be a part of something Super. Represent your favorite Jewish Pittsburgh agency at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Super Sunday. The organization with the most participants will receive $1,800. There will be three sessions beginning at 9:30 a.m. 2000 Technology Drive. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/ event/super-sunday.

MONDAY, FEB. 27

Scott Benarde spent six years combining his love of Judaism, journalism and rock ‘n’ roll to research and write “Stars of David: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Jewish Stories,” about how Judaism influenced popular music and the people

who created it. Hear Benarde talk about his book at Temple Sinai. Free and open to the public. 7 p.m. Register at templesinaipgh.org.

THURSDAY, MARCH 2

Women are invited to bake Challah-tashen filled with caramelized onion, roasted garlic or chocolate ganache at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Loaves of Love. $10. 7 p.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

THURSDAYS, MARCH 2, 23; APRIL 13, 27

This bimonthly Refaeinu healing circle is led by Sara Stock Mayo, a spiritual leader, trained drama therapist, musician and poet. The space will be open to anyone who seeks to create community in shared healing rituals, Jewish texts and music, art making and embodied wellness practices. 10.27 Healing Partnership Suite, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh. 7 p.m. To register, visit forms.gle/pAJoXvNXSJ9Ks3ow9.

THURSDAYS, MARCH 2; APRIL 6; MAY 4; JUNE 1

Join local clergy from Jewish and Christian backgrounds for the Christian Jewish Dialogue, a monthly discussion exploring topics of similarities and differences. Noon. Rodef Shalom Congregation. rodefshalom.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 5

Get into the Purim spirit with Chabad of Squirrel Hill with Kids in the Kitchen. Make festive hamantashen to take home and share. 1 p.m. $10. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

Gather with other teen girls to bake desserts for Squirrel Hill’s Giving Kitchen at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Teen Cooking Club. 3:30 p.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

TUESDAY, MARCH 7

Join Chabad of the South Hills for Purim at the Circus. Enjoy an animated Megillah reading, buffet dinner, circus entertainment, live music, hot pretzel bar, popcorn and cotton candy. Come dressed in your favorite costume. $18 per person $50 family maximum. 5 p.m. 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com/purim.

Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill and celebrate Purim with a grand Purim Party featuring a stilt-walker show. There will also be a Megillah reading, delicious dinner and prizes for anyone dressed up. Fun for the whole family! $15/adult, $10/child 5 p.m.

THURSDAYS, MARCH 9, APRIL 20, MAY 18

Join the JCC Buffalo for monthly virtual readings as part of the Jewish Poetry Series Hosted by Philip Terman and Baruch November. Each month will feature different Jewish poets reading selections of poems that include but are not limited to Jewish themes, values and ideas. 7 p.m. Free and open to the community. jccbuffalo.org/events/2023/02/09/ arts-and-culture/virtual-jewish-poetryreading-series.

THURSDAYS, MARCH 23 – APRIL 27

Today, many are concerned that democracy is under threat. That reality raises a critical question: What does Judaism have to say about democracy? What is the attitude of Judaism to majority rule, to defending minorities, to the separation of religion and state, to kings and courts? In “Is Judaism Compatible with Democracy?” Rabbi Danny Schiff will delve into what our texts have to say about the structure of government from a Jewish viewpoint. Co-sponsored and offered in conjunction with Temple Sinai. $55. 9:30 a.m. Temple Sinai, 5505 Forbes Ave. jewishpgh.org/event/is-judaism-compatible-withdemocracy/2023-03-23. PJC

JCBA video spotlights the cemeteries of western Pennsylvania

“It just was a sleepy organization,” Grinberg said. “There was no growth plan.”

organization and provided significant funding to implement the plan almost eight years ago.”

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

Over a montage of tombstones and seemingly ancient black-and-white photographs, Barry Rudel, executive director of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh, begins his narration.

“In the Jewish experience here in Pittsburgh and throughout western Pennsylvania, synagogues and organizations have come and gone — Jewish populations have shifted; whole communities have ceased to exist,” Rudel says. “In some cases, the only visible evidence of the Hill District shul, the Fraternal Society or maybe even the entire mining or mill-town’s Jewish community is represented in the one element of our Jewish tradition that can’t be merged, downsized, sold, closed or abandoned.

“Our Jewish cemeteries are sacred final resting places,” he adds, “and it is a privilege for the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA) to own and/or manage so many of them.”

The hour-long video, titled “Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western PA” and available for viewing on JCBA’s website, is enthralling stuff — and caps three years of significant growth and maturation for the JCBA.

Let’s go back to 2020. As of that year, JCBA

Kavaler:

Continued from page 5

without a romantic partner?

“I was single and she was determined to change that,” Jacob laughed. “She was always handing me all sorts of phone numbers and such.”

Years later, that persistence and determination netted Kavaler inclusion in the Jewish Association on Aging’s “Eight Over 80” listing.

Kavaler never complained about the aches and pains associated with growing older, her daughter said, and often referred to residents of Weinberg Terrace as “the older people,” even though she was older than a lot of them.

There’s a famous photo, maybe in a museum somewhere, of Kavaler sitting in her living room around 1959 with Black members of the NAACP. Fischer said that was indicative of her mother.

“Japanese, Polish, Black, white, Jewish, Christian — she had no filter for race or gender or anything we elevate today as statuses,” Fischer said. “She believed people should be equal. [She’d say] ‘This is right. This is wrong.’”

“She cared deeply about people, cared deeply about her friends and cared deeply about her causes,” Fischer added. “There’s a lot to be taken from that — it was ‘I’m a human being. You’re a human being. And we’re equal.’ There were no qualifications. There was no fanfare.”

At 93, Kavaler retired from Weinberg and, in the words of her family obituary, “left her beloved Pittsburgh for the greener pastures of Texas.” She moved to an assisted living facility called The Tradition and, true to form, quickly established a residents’ council and was awarded the first “Resident of

owned or managed just 11 cemeteries; five of them were abandoned, and 9,000 graves were under the group’s management, Rudel told the Chronicle.

Fast forward to 2023. JCBA now owns or manages 41 cemeteries — none of them abandoned — and 22,000 graves are under the group’s management.

“In three short years, we’ve addressed decades of deferred maintenance,” Rudel said. “This is a tremendous success for Jewish Pittsburgh — the cemeteries have never looked better.”

Rudel isn’t trafficking in hyperbole. The group has transformed from a quiet organization with a few cemeteries in need of work, to a powerhouse backed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh that has cleaned up dozens of sites.

Skip Grinberg, a JCBA leader and a member of the group’s executive committee, remembers the late 2010s well.

“Barry has just kind of run with it — he seems to have a passion for cemeteries and he’s done a great job,” Grinberg added. “Now, it’s starting to snowball positively. That’s the growth story people see.”

To illustrate, Grinberg points to Beth Abraham, a cemetery with more than 4,000 graves. JCBA took control of the site and poured money in for maintenance and improvements that were long needed.

“Now,” Grinberg said, “we really like the way these cemeteries look.”

James Wagner sits on JCBA’s board and was the chairman of the task force that started the organization’s dramatic rebirth. The work of the last three years is the fulfillment of a big wish, he said.

“It is with great satisfaction to see that our task force efforts are reaching this success,” Wagner said. “The Federation recognized that many of our region’s Jewish cemeteries were in need of assistance, and they convened to develop a plan.

“Under Barry Rudel’s leadership and an active working JCBA board, our Jewish responsibility for the caretaking of our cemeteries is being fulfilled,” he added.

“Honoring those who came before us is a core value in Judaism,” said Jeff Finkelstein, the Jewish Federation’s president and CEO. “We’re really proud of the immense progress the JCBA has made since the Jewish Federation began to help its board to create a new strategic plan for the

Rudel, who becomes visibly passionate when talking about the work his team does at cemeteries throughout western Pennsylvania, is quick to point the spotlight in other directions. He raves about the work ethic, for example, of Shelly Parver from the Jewish Federation, a key contributor. And Parver is not alone.

“The very individuals and families who donate and help have made the difference,” Rudel said.

Then, there’s that video. Professionally shot and produced, it paints a stirring portrait of Jewish museums of memory in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Filmmaker Jim Ledoux helped work on the project, shooting live scenes at cemeteries, as well as archival material, throughout the region.

“The thing I love most about my job as a director of photography is that every day is a new opportunity to learn and discover,” Ledoux said.

“Through my involvement with the JCBA project I developed a deeper understanding of Jewish culture and the impact that the Jewish community has had on life and trade in western Pennsylvania,” he continued. “Above all, this project highlights the respect, dignity and high value the Jewish community places on preserving the legacy and memory of those who helped shape and define this region.” PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

the Month” honor.

In a year of living close to her son, she made great friends and spent time with her Texas extended family. She celebrated holidays in San Antonio and, at her son’s ranch in Round Top, Texas, quickly endeared herself to the locals.

“She’d say, ‘You get what you give,’” John Kavaler said. “And my mother gave so much, and she received so much. She said, in her final days, ‘I just want to live and I just want to contribute.’”

“There’ll never be anyone like her,” he said. “She was the dearest friend and she was an amazing mother.” PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

p Barry Rudel narrates “Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western PA” Screenshot by Toby Tabachnick

p Mina Kavaler with former student Billy Porter backstage at “Kinky Boots” Photo courtesy of Marti Fischer

ESTATE NOTICE - Estate of Fredia Deloris Evans

Fredia Deloris Evans, Deceased January 8, 2023, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-23-0660

Deborah D. Roberts, Executrix; 233 Crestwood Place, San Ramone, CA 94583 or to

Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P .C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

ESTATE NOTICE - Estate of Patricia J. Babuscio

Patricia J. Babuscio, Deceased October 5, 2022,of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-22-7769

Gordon W. Stoernell, Executor; 439 E. Sycamore Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15211 or to

Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P .C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

ESTATE NOTICE - Estate of Jewel M. Fisher

Jewel M. Fisher, Deceased February 12, 2021, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-22-0423

Raymond Sockwell, Administrator; 333 South Washington St., Clinton, Indiana 47842 or to Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P.C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Headlines

Chabad’s annual Kinus HaShluchos draws 4,000 women emissaries

— NATIONAL —

By Faygie Holt | JNS

From Feb. 8-13, some 4,000 shluchos, Chabad women emissaries, from more than 100 countries gathered in and around the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn for the annual Kinus HaShluchos, whose agenda included workshops, speeches and Shabbat gatherings. It may well be the largest Jewish women-only gathering in the world.

Speaking at a banquet in a New Jersey convention center, Israeli broadcast journalist Sivan Rahav-Meir, a keynote speaker, said that ballroom was “the most influential room in the world.” Among the women Chabad emissaries whose work she cited, one hosted a Passover seder in Nepal for 2,500 people, and a Ukrainian emissary served her community amid war.

But most Chabad women leaders make a difference to their communities under the radar without visible impact, Rahav-Meir said. “Believe in the power of every Jew,” she told those assembled.

The kinus (Hebrew for “gathering” or “conference”) for women marks the anniversary of the 1988 passing, at age 86, of Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The gathering follows her yahrzeit on the Hebrew calendar, the 22nd of Shevat.

Miriam Moskovitz, who co-founded a Chabad in Kharkov, Ukraine, with husband Moshe, spoke at the banquet about coming to the country’s second-largest city when it was still behind the Iron Curtain.

There is no handbook for what to do when

war ravages your community, she said. All of a sudden, she was helping run a humanitarian mission for those seeking safety in the synagogue from bombs. Chabad provided food and medicine.

“There was no time to think or feel. We were in action mode,” she told the shluchos

Attendees told JNS about how much the gathering impacts them as Jews and leaders.

Behind each woman attending is a community, Dalia Sanoff, an emissary in Poughkeepsie, New York, told JNS. She grew up secular in Tel Aviv, but now is “part of the impact of the Rebbe’s army.”

For Brochie Altabe, in town from Nice, France, kinus affords the opportunity to visit with her sisters, who are also emissaries. “I feel like I am a part of this, that we are all here for the same goal,” she said.

Being a part of a gathering with so many other women, who are also working to further the Rebbe’s goal of preparing the world for the messianic era, Altabe felt that realization must be close.

“It can’t be too far away,” she said. “It’s happening. Let’s go. Let’s push a little more.”

Chabad also hosts a Kinus HaShluchim, for male emissaries, in the late fall. Beyond the banquet, the gathering for women also included programming for daughters of emissaries, who are themselves young shluchos. Attendees from remote communities, including Ivory Coast and Tasmania, report that programming is particularly helpful to them.

Italian native Zeldi Fradkin, who is now an emissary in Coronado, California, put it succinctly: “[Attending kinus] revamps my soul.” PJC

JFNA sends aid to help earthquake victims in Turkey

— WORLD —

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is helping to support earthquake relief in Turkey. More than 35,000 people across Turkey and Syria have died as a result of a massive earthquake and aftershocks last week. More than 64,000 people have been injured.

“As we witness the devastation from the recent earthquake in Turkey, the Jewish Federation of

Greater Pittsburgh sends our deepest sympathies to everyone affected and to their loved ones watching fearfully from Pittsburgh and elsewhere,” Pittsburgh’s Federation leaders said in a statement. “If people feel moved to help, our national organization Jewish Federations of North America is sending aid right now to our international partners already on the ground in the affected area. 100% of donations net of credit card fees will go directly to help people in this crisis. Go to jewishpgh.org to give.” PJC

Toby Tabachnick

p This year’s Kinus HaShluchos banquet in New Jersey Photo courtesy of Chabad-Lubavitch via JNS

Three minor quakes in 24 hours rattle Israel

Two earthquakes shook Israel on Feb. 8, measuring 3.3 and 3.9 on the Richter scale, respectively, JNS.org reported. The first was in central Israel, and the second was in Lebanon but felt across the Golan Heights.

The temblors followed a 3.5 magnitude quake overnight on Feb. 7 centered 9 miles southeast of Ariel, which was felt in Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

There were no reports of injuries or damage, aside from limited cracks in the walls of residential apartments.

The three quakes, occurring within 24 hours, come on the backdrop of the devastating earthquakes that have killed more than 36,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

The Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee earlier in the week called for an emergency meeting to review the country’s earthquake preparedness in light of the devastation in Turkey and Syria. Concurrently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi to “update and reiterate the steps we need to take.”

Barcelona mayor severs ties with twin city of Tel Aviv, citing Israeli ‘apartheid’

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau announced

that the city is no longer twinned with Tel Aviv, citing claims that Israel is guilty of “apartheid,” as well as “flagrant and systematic violation of human rights,” JTA.org reported.

Barcelona and Tel Aviv entered the relationship in 1998 — when both cities jointly signed a “twin city” agreement with Gaza City. Colau’s decision comes less than a year after Barcelona launched two linked campaigns — “Shalom Barcelona” and “Barcelona Connects Israel” to appeal to Jewish and Israeli tourists interested in exploring their heritage. Last summer, the city opened up the world’s first Michelinstarred kosher restaurant.

“More than 100 organizations and over 4,000 citizens have demanded that we defend the human rights of Palestinians and for this reason, as mayor, I have written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him that I have suspended temporarily the institutional relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv,” said Colau, who has been Barcelona’s mayor since 2015 on Feb. 8.

The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain condemned the decision, which it called “sophisticated antisemitism.”

Bill to criminalize egalitarian prayer, immodest dress at Western Wall is shelved

A proposed Israeli law that would sharply curtail the rights of women and non-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall sparked

Today in Israeli History

Feb. 20, 1957 — Eisenhower tells Israel to follow U.N. resolutions

alarm on Feb. 9, leading Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pledge that regulations at the holy site would “remain exactly the same” as they are now, JTA.org reported.

The bill was submitted by a lawmaker from Shas, the Sephardi haredi Orthodox party that is a member of Netanyahu’s governing coalition. It would have criminalized mixed-gender prayer at the site, as well as immodest dress and the playing of musical instruments.

Women would be forbidden from reading from a Torah scroll or blowing a shofar at the site. Women would not be allowed to don prayer shawls or tefillin, the leather boxes and straps traditionally worn by Jews during morning prayers and historically worn only by men.

The bill’s provisions also would have applied to the Wall’s non-Orthodox section, adjacent to the main plaza. Offenders would have faced a fine of approximately $3,000 or six months in prison.

Oregon university that fired professor who reported antisemitic incidents settles for $1M

A university in Oregon that fired a Jewish professor after he reported several incidents, including purported antisemitic remarks made by its president, has settled with the professor, JTA.org reported.

Linfield University, a private school in McMinnville, will pay $1 million to English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

for his wrongful termination in 2021. Pollack-Pelzner had accused the school’s president, Miles K. Davis, of making antisemitic remarks in front of him, including jokes about gas chambers and comments on the size of Jewish noses. He was fired shortly after he went public with these and other accusations, including some regarding allegations of sexual harassment directed at members of the school’s board of trustees.

After his termination, Pollack-Pelzner, who was tenured, sued the school for $4 million. A report on his firing last year by the American Association of University Professors found that Linfield had violated Pollack-Pelzner’s academic freedom and right to due process.

Tel Aviv light rail to debut in April

The long-delayed Tel Aviv light rail project will debut on Israeli Independence Day April 26, Minister of Transport Miri Regev announced on Feb. 7, Globes reported.

The Tel Aviv light rail Red Line was supposed to begin operations in October 2021, but was postponed multiple times, in part because of a defective signaling system.

The line will run from Bat Yam, Jaffa and Tel Aviv via Ramat Gan and Bnai Brak to Petah Tikva. PJC

— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

Join the Chronicle Book Club!

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

Feb. 17, 1948 — State Department tries to stop partition

The State Department’s policy planning staff sends a memo to President Harry Truman and Secretary of State George Marshall that argues against implementing the U.N. partition resolution for Palestine.

Feb. 18, 1947 — Britain asks U.N. to sort out Palestine

Amid rising intercommunal violence, the British government asks the United Nations to decide the future of Palestine, leading to the partition plan the U.N. General Assembly approves Nov. 29, 1947.

Feb. 19, 1936

— Strategy meeting plans Zionist land purchases

In a nationally televised address, President Dwight Eisenhower emphasizes the need for Israel to abide by U.N. resolutions calling for its withdrawal from all of Sinai and the Gaza Strip after the 1956 war.

Feb. 21, 1852 — Pope protests

Jewish emancipation

Pope Pius IX protests the partial emancipation of Jews under Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany. The pope writes of the need to try to keep Catholics “from having any contact with the infidels.”

Feb. 22, 1948

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its March 5 discussion of “A Play for the End of the World,” by Jai Chakrabarti. The author will join us for the meeting.

The novel was winner of the National Jewish Book Award’s Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction and longlisted for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award.

From Amazon.com: “New York City, 1972. Jaryk Smith, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Lucy Gardner, a southerner, newly arrived in the city, are in the first bloom of love when they receive word that Jaryk’s oldest friend has died under mysterious circumstances in a rural village in eastern India.

p Bombs leave wide destruction on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda Street on Feb. 22, 1948.

p Moshe Sharett, depicted on a 1966 stamp celebrating the Jewish National Fund, argued for working with the British to minimize limits on immigration and land purchases.

Led by Moshe Shertok (Sharett), the Jewish Agency convenes Zionist leaders to discuss how to keep purchasing land for the growing Jewish population in Palestine despite anticipated British restrictions.

— Truck bombs explode on Ben Yehuda Street Arabs disguised as British troops and two British deserters detonate several truck bombs along Ben Yehuda Street’s shopping district in downtown Jerusalem, killing as many as 58 Jewish civilians.

Feb. 23, 1966 — O cers seize power in Syria

Young army officers take power in a coup against Syria’s Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party. Hafez al-Assad is named the defense minister, putting him in charge of the military in the June 1967 war against Israel. PJC

“Travelling there alone to collect his friend’s ashes, Jaryk soon finds himself enmeshed in the chaos of local politics and efforts to stage a play in protest against the government — the same play that he performed as a child in Warsaw as an act of resistance against the Nazis. Torn between the survivor’s guilt he has carried for decades and his feelings for Lucy, Jaryk must decide how to honor both the past and the present, and how to accept a happiness he is not sure he deserves.”

Your hosts:

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle

David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

How and when:

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, March 5, at noon.

What to do:

Buy: “A Play for the End of the World.”

It is available at area Barnes & Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Several copies are available through the Carnegie Library system.

Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburgh jewishchronicle.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

Frien ,

We invite you to Big Night Hollywood, Saturday, March 4, at JCC Studios in Squirrel Hill.

Everyone will be a star in this larger-than-life production. You’ll walk the red carpet, pose for glamorous photo ops and converge on the set in the Squirrel Hill Studios for dinner and dancing. You’ll enjoy unique performances and acts, take chances in our casino and raffle, and bid on awe-inspiring goods and experiences in the Big Night Auction.

Big Night Hollywood means so much to all of us because it supports the center of the community –the JCC. Our Big Night raises funds that provide scholarships and support for individuals to participate in the JCC’s many wonderful programs and services. Big Night is our way of saying thank you for supporting the JCC.

bidpal.net/bignight23

Make Big Night YOUR BIG night out. Please join us! schedule Flyer

For more information: Fara Marcus · fmarcus@jccpgh.org YOUR

Zack Block

*Funds raised help support theJCC’s programs, services and scholarships. We are proud to have provided $2.4 million

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Billboards:

Continued from page 1

The results include a “Love Your Neighbor Gathering” on Feb. 19 in downtown Butler.

A short ride from Butler, the Armstrong County Democratic Committee crafted its response to Placek’s billboards, which have greeted travelers along Route 422 in Summit Township since 2019.

The ACDC rented a billboard, owned by Huntington Billboards on land leased from a third party, directly across from Placek’s messages.

The ACDC billboard read: “No Matter What you look like Who you love What your

Branch:

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this is where I fit in and it feels good to, kind of, put my faith first,” she said. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that she began speaking about her respiratory disability, which she had previously “masked,” or hid.

After she began speaking about her disability in public, Chai-Chang took the next step and began writing about it and embracing “all of her identities,” she said.

“I was worried there weren’t other people like me around,” she said, “so I’m really happy we’re having a discussion that includes talking about a person of Jewish faith and, also, speaking about being a person with disabilities. And it is Black History Month, so it’s a perfect combination and a time to be proud of all my identities at one moment.”

Part of Chai-Chang’s identity is tied to her projects in the entertainment field, and she took her audience on a tour through her work with RespectAbility, a national nonprofit advocating for people with disabilities. She spoke of her

Anzovin:

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creative and oddly acting “more akin to what they’re actually doing in the Talmud,” the influencer said.

Azovin’s digital actions are a familiar play within Jewish history, according to Freedman.

“On one level, what Miriam is doing, what she represents, there’s nothing new and everything new,” he said. “A Jew teaching Jews Talmud is the most old-fashioned thing you

Hillel:

Continued from page 4 absence of hope.”

“Today, if you’re a Palestinian, you look around and you have nothing to believe in,” he continued. “You don’t believe in the Israelis — in the same way that the Israelis believe that the Palestinians are not partners, the Palestinians have their own narrative to believe that the Israelis are not partners. You don’t believe in your own government. You don’t believe in any of your political institutions. So what do you end up with? You end up with chaos, and this is what we are seeing today.

“The essence of this conflict,” al-Omari said, “is that you have two nations, two peoples, with a very just, very justifiable, claim to the same piece of land.”

While the depth of the Jewish connection is

religion Where you’re from You’ve got a friend in Armstrong County.”

ACDC Chairman Chuck Pascal said in a statement that Placek’s messages gave Armstrong Country a bad name.

“We have heard from many people who have said the messages made them feel fearful and unwelcome here, just because of who they are,” Pascal said. “This has included African Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ persons, immigrants, as well as people who are Jewish and of other non-Christian religions.”

The ACDC’s billboard with its message of inclusivity engendered positive feedback, Pascal said — at least initially. So, ACDC officials were surprised to hear otherwise from the billboard

appearance in an Apple commercial that airs during Sunday Night Football and her work in Unstoppable, a program created in 2020 for and by disabled filmmakers.

About one in four Americans are disabled, Chai-Ching said — and that doesn’t include those suffering from long COVID.

One in seven Jews identify as Jews of color, she said.

Asked by moderator Nancy Gale, executive director of The Branch, to recount notable stories of inclusion, Chai-Chang recalled a time in college when she and others at Hillel hosted a “prom-ukah,” combining a prom with the holiday of Chanukah.

“I remember feeling like I could invite some of my friends who weren’t Jewish,” she said, “but also, we were putting our Jewish pride on display. That was a full coming together. We also provided easy access and shuttles to get there. We thought about how to make the in-person event accessible, too, and this was before I started advocating for having accommodations at events.”

That was the first time, she said, when all her

can find, but she’s doing it in a hyper-contemporary manner and that’s astonishing. So everything is new and nothing is new, and that’s a very powerful combination.”

Through workshops with the community and conversations with students, Anzovin said she will share her approach to creating content. More importantly, she hopes to tell Pittsburghers what the experience of studying Talmud has meant personally.

“I didn’t always have the level of confidence, or creative ability, or creative energy

well known, “you’d be mistaken if you think that the Palestinians do not hold a similarly deep connection to this land,” he told the students.

The former Palestinian negotiator dismissed the idea of a single-state solution by pointing to each nation’s expressions of identity: What would the flag look like? What would the national anthem be? How about national holidays?

“There’s a national identity that needs to be expressed and the only way you can do it is with a two-state solution. So while a two-state solution is not possible today, I think one of the first priorities we have today is how do you make sure that the possibility of a two-state solution is not closed forever. And this is where we have to start looking at the map. Not all settlements are born the same. Some settlements — even though I have issues with settlements in general, — are consistent with a two-state solution.”

company just a few days after it was hung.

“The billboard went up Saturday the fourth,” ACDC Vice Chair Melanie Bowser said. “I believe they [Huntington Billboards] called me Monday and said the landowner had left several messages over the weekend that he [the landowner] was getting death threats, and he was worried about his life and property and that the billboard needed to come down immediately.”

Because of the alleged death threats, Huntington cited a provision in its contract that allows it to remove billboards that are “objectionable or that attracts negative publicity or controversy from the community,” according to an ACDC press release.

The Chronicle reached out to Huntington

worlds coalesced.

When advocating for people with disabilities, Chai-Chang said, it’s important not to simply act as an “ableist” and speak for people. Rather, she said, those wishing to help should find ways to support those with disabilities without speaking over them or tokenizing them, and by first asking people if they need assistance.

Advocacy, she said, doesn’t mean arguing about a problem.

“I’ve had to speak up in those moments and say, ‘We’re all in this together,’” she said.

Speaking specifically about inclusion for Jews of color, Chai-Chang encouraged the Jewish community to pursue diversity training.

Additionally, she said, finding descriptors other than a person’s race is important, as is creating safe environments where people can speak freely — an anonymous tip box, for instance.

An important “don’t,” she said, is to avoid asking for proof of identification or if Jews of color know how to perform particular traditions. The Jews of Color Initiative, ChaiChang said, is a good resource to learn more

or direction,” she said. “I didn’t think that I, Miriam Anzovin, would be somebody that anyone would ever know for her thoughts about the Talmud or literally anything else.”

Dedicating hours each day to study, and then packaging humorous responses to rabbinic thought while engaging with a robust digital community, “is deeply humbling and deeply overwhelming.”

That realization yields a singular path forward, Anzovin said.

“There is work to be done in making

Apart from preserving a territorial component, other challenges remain. One, “people have given up,” he said. “I can’t blame them. I can’t blame Biden for saying ‘I don’t want to touch this.’ There have been so many failures and who wants to be associated with failure?”

The second difficulty, al-Omari said, is convincing Palestinian leadership to accept the realities of partnership. “You can’t start big but you have to start small.”

For many, he said, Israeli-Palestinian relations are theoretical, but for those in the region, and for “any of us who feel a sense of attachment to Palestine and Israel, we have to ask ourselves, ‘How can we be a part of improving their lives?’ Because at the end of the day, if we’re not pushing for it, I think no one else in our country, and in the world, are going to be pushing for it.”

Justin Cohen, business manager of the Student Coalition for Israel at Pitt, said Ross

Billboards for comment. A company representative initially said he would talk to the Chronicle at a later time, but as of press time, he has not. The Chronicle is unable to confirm if Huntington instructed the ACDC to remove its billboard message and, if so, why.

Regardless of the actions taken by Huntington, Pascal said, most of Armstrong County’s residents side with the ACDC’s message of tolerance and acceptance.

“The vast majority here want Armstrong County to be a place where all people can live with safety and dignity,” he said. PJC

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

about the subject.

Turning an eye to the intersection of race and disability, she noted that disabilities are still stigmatized in some “communities of color.”

“My mom didn’t come around to embracing that I’ve accepted being disabled as an identity until about a year ago,” she said.

Saying she has a “just ask” policy, ChaiChang encouraged her audience to freely communicate and ask questions if they are unsure about the situation surrounding a person with disabilities.

The webinar was attended by 85 people.

“I think she’s a really impressive person and has a really important message to get out,” Gale said of Chai-Chang. A large takeaway, Gale added, was the Just Ask/Don’t Ask portion of Chai-Chang’s talk.

“I think she’s encouraging the audience to stop and think and ask more questions,” she said. PJC

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

Talmud accessible and exciting for so many people, regardless of who they are, regardless of what their observance level is,” she said. “Maybe people were waiting for a formerly Orthodox, now atheist, feminist millennial Jew, who swears and uses a lot of pop culture to get people hyped about Jewish learning. And I want to keep being that for people and for myself.” PJC

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

and al-Omari’s comments are part of a larger effort to enhance student understanding on campus. Along with fellow student Asher Goodwin, Cohen is organizing a seven-session course on the history of modern Zionism, Israeli politics and Israeli-Palestinian relations. Titled, “Israel 360,” the sessions are open to students, regardless of background, from any local campus.

“The Palestinian-Israel issue is often looked at as a very kind of bumper sticker, morality play, good guys, bad guys,” al-Omari told the Chronicle after the event. “We want to convey that we’re not asking anyone to change their affiliations, but we want people to understand that it is complicated, there are complicated policy issues, there are complicated and legitimate narratives on both sides.” PJC

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

From Moses to Memphis, the work of liberation remains unfinished

Guest Columnist

Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein

Rereading Exodus this month in synagogue reminds me of when I first learned about Moses’ role in freeing the Children of Israel who had been enslaved to Pharaoh. I grew up in Monsey, New York. My mother was Black and my father was white; my family identified with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. I discovered the Passover story through ultra-Orthodox coloring books that depicted the liberation of the ancient Israelites from bondage in Egypt.

One illustration depicted Moses as an 18th-century Hasidic Jew clad in a shtreimel (fur hat) and long kapote (robe), with abundant sidelocks flowing down to his shoulders. I brought home my masterpiece, fully crayoned in purple, and showed it proudly to my mother. She gave me a puzzled look and said, “You know, Moses didn’t look like this. He had brown skin like mine.”

It was an enlightening idea that hit me like a thunderbolt. Seeing Moses as a Black person changed my whole idea of Jewish history and religion in one fell swoop — it made me feel my Black and Jewish roots even more profoundly, and that I was a descendant of great Jewish and African men and women who founded our tradition.

As time went on, though, and I went “all in” and studied to become a rabbi, I realized that Moses’ skin color mattered much less than his role as a liberator. Although many Jews do see in color, Judaism does not. The way to follow in his footsteps, I grasped, was to become an educator, a leader and a champion for freedom. I’ve devoted my career to empowering Jewish communities across the continent to become more welcoming and

But there is, alas, still so far to go, as last month’s brutal killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the police in Memphis reminds us. Both Black History Month and the Book of Exodus teach that we can only fulfill our destiny if we fight for the liberation of all peoples.

Earlier this month, we celebrated Shabbat Shira, in which we read about the Children of Israel’s miraculous escape from Egypt

— in Memphis — on the night before he was assassinated.

Early in the speech, King imagined “God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across, the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the Promised Land.” He concluded with these uncannily prescient words: “I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. So, I’m happy tonight, I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

inclusive, to overcome racism and prejudice, and to create a more just, equitable and loving society.

The Biblical narrative of the Exodus is a call to stand for freedom and against tyranny in every generation. It says, in effect, “You are able to speak, and to be carried away on the wings of words from millennia ago, bound to no Pharaoh’s story, but liberated by your own.”

Neither my Black nor Jewish forebears could have imagined how far their descendants would come in terms of participation and even leadership in our society. As the Black visual artist Brandon Odums has reflected, “We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

by crossing the Red Sea. I was reminded of what the late 20th-century Slonimer Rebbe, Sholom Noach Berezovsky, said about the ancient Hebrews wading into the water because they had faith not just in their hearts and minds, but in their bodies — in their very bones, he said.

What does it mean to believe with your bones? The Prophet Jeremiah declared that the word of God was like “fire shut up in his bones” (20:9). Dr. Martin Luther King quoted Jeremiah in his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” saying, “Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around, he tell it.”

King gave that speech on April 3, 1968

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s secret weapon

Guest Columnist

Rob Eshman

The last thing you’d expect from a wartime leader is a good joke.

But Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is entering the second year of leading his country against a brutal and bloody Russian invasion, has a million.

You could say humor has been one of Ukraine’s most important weapons — not a bug, but a feature. And for those searching for some evidence of Zelenskyy’s Ashkenazi heritage, look no further than his jokes.

Zelenskyy weaponized his sharp wit from the start.

Hours after Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, and seemed to be rolling toward the capital of Kyiv, the U.S. offered to evacuate the president. “The fight is here,” he responded. “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Or remember when Zelenskyy met with actor Ben Stiller, who visited Ukraine in his role as goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency.

“You’re my hero,” Stiller told Zelenskyy, who demurred. “No, really,” Stiller pressed. “You quit a great acting career for this.”

“Not so great as yours!” Zelenskyy shot back. Remember last October, when Ukrainian forces blew up part of a bridge serving as a Russian supply line? Zelenskyy went on television that evening — and offered a weather report.

“Today was a good and mostly sunny day on the territory of our state, about 20 degrees, warm and sunny,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea, although it was also warm.”

You can watch a video of the explosion to see just how cloudy it was — boom.

Zelenskyy, of course, was funny — and famous for being funny — long before he was president or this terrible war began.

After breaking through in television sketch comedy, he landed his own show, “Evening Quarter,” in 2005. He followed that with a winning appearance in the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars,” and as the dubbed voice of Paddington Bear in the animated movie hit.

There was even that time in 2016 Zelenskyy pretended to be playing “Hava Nagila” on the piano with his penis. Name another wartime leader, journalist Amy Spiro asked, who has “played ‘Hava Nagila’ on a piano with their genitals on stage and then gone on to lead their country against a foreign invasion?”

It was a rhetorical question.

Zelenskyy’s life-imitates-art series,

“Servant of the People” arrived in 2015. He wrote and starred in the show about a naive, sincere high school teacher who becomes Ukraine’s president.

In one episode, the character gets a call from German Prime Minister Angela Merkel congratulating Ukraine for getting into NATO. Zelenskyy’s character jumps with joy until Merkel realizes she’s made a mistake — she thought she was speaking with the president of Montenegro.

“My congratulations, yes, to Montenegro,” he says — with the same arch, acid tone we’ve heard him use speaking to parliaments and politicians who haven’t offered enough weapons to Ukraine.

There have been other actors who understood how to parlay their fame and understanding of performance into political success: President Ronald Reagan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, President Donald Trump. But none of them faced a full-scale invasion of their homeland by a nuclear power, and none of them earned the love and attention of their fellow citizens through comedy.

Through comedy, Zelenskyy delivers not just lines, but punchlines. We all know what a short attention span the world has for tragedy. As the death toll from the earthquake in Turkey climbed past 30,000, that news slid down web pages beneath stories of downed balloons and the Super Bowl.

Our commitment to creating a better world — making it to the Promised Land — must always be so much more than merely skin deep. Only when we believe in our bones that change is possible, and that we can be agents of that change, will fear melt away and we will be able to defeat the Pharaohs who seek to deprive us of our dignity, whether in Memphis or anywhere in our land.

We shall reach the Promised Land — someday. We shall recognize that we are all God’s children—someday. We shall overcome — someday.

May that day be very soon and may we all unite in joy, peace and celebration to usher it in. PJC

Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein is the rabbinic scholar and public affairs adviser for the Jewish Federations of North America. This column first appeared on JTA.

But humor has enabled Zelenskyy to keep the world watching. That’s partly because his jokes make him relatable — he seems to be the Everyman he once portrayed.

It’s also because humor makes him unpredictable. Tuning in to a Zelenskyy news conference, you’re not sure if you’ll get Franklin Roosevelt or Al Franken.

Usually, it’s a bit of both. Last September, when Ukraine turned the tide of battle against the Russians in Kharkiv, Zelenskyy wrote a post on the Telegram app directed at Vladimir Putin: “Without gas or without you? Without you,” he wrote. “Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.”

There’s no punchline there, but the lines pack a punch. They have all the brevity and cadence of a good joke, and the butt of it is Putin.

I also wouldn’t underestimate another important power of Zelenskyy’s humor — it attracts other funny people. That keeps him in late-night monologues and feeds publicity from visitors like Stiller and David Letterman.

Letterman centered an entire episode of his Netflix show around Zelenskyy last December. The former late night

The Biblical narrative of the Exodus is a call to stand for freedom and against tyranny in every generation.

Chronicle poll results: State of the Union address

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Did you agree with President Biden’s State of the Union address?” Of the 261 people who responded, 66% said “yes”; 24% said “no”; 9% said “partially”; and 1% had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 79 people. A few follow.

Yes, except that he mostly focused on conditions within the USA and he never mentioned Israel or the threats to its existence.

His report was a total misrepresentation of the state of the union. All is not good. Crime is on the rise. Inflation has not been turned around. Immigration is a disaster. Foreign affairs is a shambles. Divisiveness and extremism in Congress is destroying the country.

Of course a few statements were embellishments and others needed more context, but as a whole what Biden said was correct and inspirational .... particularly when compared to his predecessor and Sanders’ rebuttal.

MTG’s white fur is the antithesis of Pat Nixon’s “good Republican cloth coat.”

Eshman:

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host interviewed the president on an active subway platform 300 feet below ground. Zelenskyy, naturally, offered a joke.

“Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up,” Zelenskyy said.

Did you agree with President Biden’s State of the Union address? 9%

He was right on target, and the Republicans were rude and unprofessional with their heckling and yelling out. The ones who did this should have been escorted out of the building.

Yes, if you like fairytale time from an old incompetent politician.

Best State of the Union address I’ve ever heard. I hope he has a chance to finish the plan.

One Jew asks the other how the war is going, and his companion says Russia is fighting NATO, and things are going badly.

“Seventy thousand Russian soldiers are dead, missile supplies are depleted, a lot of equipment is damaged, blown up.”

“And what about NATO?”

“What about NATO? NATO hasn’t even arrived yet!”

Arab states should have welcomed refugees

Bassem Eid is absolutely correct in his analysis of the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (“After massacre at Jerusalem synagogue, Palestinians must confront the violence in our culture,” Feb. 10). Palestinian leaders have never attempted to prepare their people for life in a state co-existing with the nation-state of the Jews. The leaders’ view of a two-state solution has always been a Palestinian state from which all Jews have been banished and a Muslim-majority Israel, peopled by millions of “Palestine refugees” (so designated by UNRWA). It is estimated that no more than 30,000 Arabs who fled Arab-initiated violence in 1940’s Palestine are still alive; fully 95% of the nearly 6 million Palestine refugees were born in UNRWA camps. Arab and Palestinian leaders have told the refugees that they will remain in refugee limbo until they are allowed to return to the homes the refugees claim their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents ... lost when Arab armies failed to prevent the emergence of the modern state of Israel. But the refugees have grown up seeing Palestinians honored and rewarded for killing Jews. Taking them in would be tantamount to the Jewish state committing national suicide.

One little-discussed aspect of this situation is that the Arabs deliberately created and have prolonged the statelessness of the Palestine refugees. As Eid points out, Arab violence created two refugee populations. More Mizrachi Jews were expelled from their homes in the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa than Arabs had fled or been expelled from Palestine. Tiny Israel absorbed and uplifted 800,000 Mizrachi Jews, while rehabilitating Holocaust survivors, recovering from damages inflicted by Arab armies, and dealing with

He delivered a good message in my opinion. I really hope the Democrats and Republicans can come together for the good of America and all Americans.

It was all “fake news.”

I believe that the State of the Union speech represented one of the best speeches President Joe Biden ever gave. I liked his emphasis on “the job must be done” — and his highlighting that success is possible through collaboration and compromise.

The Republicans embarrassed me with their verbal reactions to the speech; even young children understand the need to respect others, despite disagreeing with them.

Now the Republicans won’t dare diminish Social Security or Medicare.

Our country is in a bad place, and both parties are to blame. They are in politics to get rich and drunk with power. It’s time that we get back to our founding principles of limited federal government and taking our inalienable rights back.

The speech was filled with lies. He claims he created tons of jobs; in fact, the jobs created were ones coming back since the

The Jewish reference was unusual for Zelenskyy, who rarely refers to his Judaism. In fact, his sense of humor may be the most publicly Jewish thing about him. And if that’s the case, that’s enough.

“Zelenskyy has shown the world that Jewish comedians are not to be trifled with,” Gary Shteyngart, the Russian-born American novelist, told NPR last March. “Beneath all

advent of COVID. Our economy was so much better under our previous administration. He has truly run this country into the ground.

Great speech given in the midst of unseemly behavior by too many Republicans.

I’m puzzled why so many Americans don’t acknowledge all of President Biden’s accomplishments. Is it lack of media attention to the positives and focusing on the negatives?

I think the president is doing a fine job at projecting Jewish values: dignity, compassion, equity.

While I “partially agree” with the SOTU speech, it did give me a small measure of hope. To see both sides rise in support of common goals, to recognize that the way forward is with dialogue and the need to work together. President Biden is kind. PJC

Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question: How often do you attend religious services in person? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle. org to respond. PJC

the laughs they have a backbone of steel.” Ladies and gentlemen, he’ll be here all night. God willing. PJC

Rob Eshman is senior contributing editor of the Forward, where this first appeared. To get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox, go to forward.com/ newsletter-signup.

terror attacks launched from land illegally occupied by Egypt and Jordan between 1949 and 1967. Surely, the numerous Arab countries, covering a large swath of land and some oil-rich, should have easily absorbed the smaller number (400,000 to 700,000) of Palestinian refugees, who shared religion, language and culture with the citizens of many Arab countries. And those Arab states which had chosen to go to war instead of helping the Arabs of Palestine prepare for self-rule should have felt obligated to welcome the refugees.

Toby F. Block Atlanta, Georgia

A world of food

I always look forward to the Chronicle being delivered each week. Lately, the first thing I look for is Jessica Grann’s recipe. With all the controversy and negative things we read, it is such a pleasure to have something positive to see. I have been especially interested in her latest contributions, taking us on a culinary tour around the globe, from Tuscan white bean dip and Greek lemon rice chicken soup to Cuban black beans and French crepes. Her past recipes for goat cheese and mushroom quiche, and red lentil soup are two of my favorites. So I just want to thank Jessica for her inspiration and the Chronicle for sharing it. A global tour with no passport needed!

Sharyn Wolfson Pittsburgh

Locally produced ‘Medical Divorce’ recounts a modern insurance hardship through a Jewish lens

By David Rullo | Sta Writer

Scott Danzig’s latest short film is sure to engender strong emotions.

“Medical Divorce” follows an elderly Jewish couple that debates divorce as a solution to their rising medical costs. Danzig wrote, produced and directed the film being shown at various film festivals around the country.

The filmmaker said that he was inspired to create his latest work by an article he read.

“I was like, ‘It can’t be that bad,’ and I looked into it, and it is,” he said.

The “it” Danzig refers to is divorce forced by the rising cost of medical coverage. Couples want to stay together, but the prohibitive cost of health care could mean a “medical divorce” is the only solution. Jointly-held assets are transferred to the healthy spouse allowing the other, ailing partner to acquire or maintain insurance — often Medicaid — to cover treatments or long-term care.

“I’m always looking for a concept that inspires me,” Danzig said, “and this was pretty easy. You can really capture that story arc. A short film is challenging to make people care. They get really invested in TV series that go on for months, but to do it in less than 10 minutes, only certain subjects work.”

A marriage threatened by medical costs is something people can relate to, he said.

“The fact that it’s accepted in modern society and so normal, I thought was a powerful story,” he said.

The Pittsburgh filmmaker knows of what he speaks. He is the owner of Sneaky Ghost Films and has produced more than a dozen shorts.

Danzig, who is Jewish, spent the first 30 years of his life in New Jersey, then spent time in Boston, New York City and Binghamton, New York. He moved to Pittsburgh when his wife was hired at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

He said that he’s always been creative and took up filmmaking while in New York. After leaving New York, he bought the equipment

needed to create his own films and started a production company. He’s brought that DIY attitude to Pittsburgh.

“I feel like I’m having a really good time,” he said. “This seems to be a great indie filmmaking town. COVID was a challenge, but I’ve been working a lot locally since. It’s given me wings in terms of what I’ve been able to do here.”

The films Danzig produces aren’t your typical “happily ever after” works, he said.

“It’s like my personality, which is a fun blend of sarcasm and goofiness. Well, maybe not sarcasm, but realism, I guess,” he said. “My films don’t usually end well.”

While the subject of his latest opus, “Medical Divorce,” is serious, he said, it is also a dark comedy.

Danzig said the film has Jewish elements. While he typically makes universal films, he felt that incorporating Judaism in this short allowed him to add richness by embracing culture, something he has been tentative about in the past.

“I’ve learned that the ‘Green Book,’ for instance, was a great movie,” he said. “It probably wasn’t the place of the writer to tell that story, and there is a laundry list where cultures are appropriated. I thought about it, and this is

my culture. I also think there’s a beauty in the culture that I wanted to leverage and thought I could do that in this film.”

For Howard Elson, one of the actors in the film, “Medical Divorce” provided an opportunity to combine several different areas of experience and passion.

Elson, a dentist, is Jewish and has performed since he was a teenager.

“I sang professionally,” he said. “That’s how I put myself through dental school.”

Elson said that he had mostly performed in theater, but when the pandemic caused theaters to close, he was looking for opportunities to continue acting. He saw an ad in a trade publication for the movie and auditioned for Danzig.

Plus, he said, as a dentist, he knows the hardships that can come from medical insurance issues.

“As a pediatric dentist, dealing with a lot of Medicaid kids and kids from working-class families, I deal with a lot of insurance issues,” he said. “This really intrigued me. Despite medical insurance and Medicaid and Medicare, various ways of paying, some people literally go bankrupt trying to pay for medical bills.”

Jewish Pittsburghers will find more

AgeWell at the JCC expands to South Hills

— LOCAL —

Seniors living in the South Hills will have access to some new services and programming, thanks to a pilot project of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

Through the support of the Jack Buncher Family Foundation, a new Senior Center will launch at the JCC South Hills this month. Called AgeWell at the JCC-South Hills, the center will be based in a newly renovated space at the South Hills JCC and offer low-cost kosher-style grab-and-go lunches as well as a wide variety of services, classes and opportunities for socializing, according to JCC officials. The pilot is modeled and adapted from the Allegheny Countysupported Senior Center, AgeWell at the

JCC, which launched more than 40 years ago at the JCC’s Squirrel Hill facilities.

“With the growing number of seniors we’ve seen from community data, we believe this expansion of AgeWell at the JCC South Hills will provide vital and life-changing resources for our seniors and improve their

overall well-being,” said Sharon Feinman, division director of AgeWell at the JCC, in a prepared statement.

AgeWell at the JCC-South Hills will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 pm. The program includes:

than an interesting subject in “Medical Divorce.”

The movie was filmed at Congregation Beth Shalom’s cemetery in Shaler Township and features a familiar face: Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Seth Adelson.

Adelson said that when Danzig inquired about using the cemetery he said he also needed a rabbi.

“I’m very grateful that I now have an IMBD credit,” Adelson said with a laugh.

And while the rabbi was happy for the opportunity, he won’t soon be trading his tallit for a Screen Actors Guild card.

“There’s only one stage I want to be on, and that’s called the bimah,” he said.

“Medical Divorce” was accepted into both the NYC Short Comedy Film Festival and the Red Rose Film Festival. It will be screened as part of the Short. Sweet. Film Fest from March 1-4 in Cleveland. PJC

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

• Kosher-style, grab-and-go lunches from 12:30-1:30 p.m. There will be seating options available. $3. Registration is required.

•Information and referral services

•Wellness programming

• Evidence-based and evidence-informed programs such as HomeMeds, Chronic Disease Management and Aging Mastery series

•Educational opportunities

• Social programs and volunteer opportunities

Those 60 and older can register to participate beginning on Feb. 14. Lunches and programming will begin on Feb. 21. PJC

Toby Tabachnick

p Congregation Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Seth Adelson had a small role in Scott Danzig’s film short “Medical Divorce.” Photo by Heather Gray

p Scott Danzig Photo courtesy of Sneaky Ghost Films

“With the growing number of seniors we’ve seen from community data, we believe this expansion of AgeWell at the JCC South Hills will provide vital and life-changing resources for our seniors and improve their overall well-being.”

–SHARON FEINMAN

Life & Culture

Rice with vermicelli

about an inch long.

By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

Rice cooked with toasted vermicelli and pine nuts is one of my favorite comfort foods and makes a wonderful side dish with meat, chicken or fish. It only takes a little bit longer to prepare than traditional rice, but it makes a much better presentation.

This is a traditional recipe served in the Levant that is often seen on a Sephardic table. You can omit the pine nuts if you have an allergy or if you don’t have them on hand, but they really take the dish to a higher level.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup broken vermicelli pasta

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup rinsed white basmati or baldo rice

2 cups boiling water

⅓ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Put the uncooked rice in a bowl and cover it with water, allowing it to soak for half an hour, then rinse the rice under running water for a minute in a mesh strainer or a colander. If using a colander, make sure that the rice grains are larger than the holes so you don’t lose any rice in the sink.

Boil 2 cups of water in a kettle.

Place a 3-quart pot over medium-low heat for a minute, then add the olive oil to the pot. Allow the oil to warm for a minute or so, then add the broken vermicelli. I usually buy noodles that come already broken in a bag, but you can buy a regular package of vermicelli and break the amount of pasta needed for the recipe into pieces that are

Add the pasta to the oil and stay near the stove; the pasta should toast, but don’t allow it to burn.

Stir the vermicelli constantly every 10 seconds or so for 4-5 minutes or until you see mostly golden-colored pieces. Some pieces may look darker than others, and that’s OK.

Mix the rice into the pot, stirring every 30 seconds for 1½ to 2 minutes. The rice will sizzle when added to the pot because it’s wet. (Unless I’m making rice for an Asian recipe, I always cook the rice in oil before adding the water to the pot. I can’t tell you about the science of what happens when you cook it this way, but the result is fluffier rice.)

Pour the boiling water over the rice mixture, and give it a good stir. Any pieces that are sticking to the bottom of the pot typically release immediately into the water.

Add the salt, and turn the heat to medium-high.

Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat to low and cover the pot.

Let cook, untouched and without removing the lid, for 20 minutes. If using baldo rice, cook it for 25 minutes because the grains are a bit plumper than basmati rice.

Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit and steam, covered, for 5 more minutes.

If you have pine nuts, toast them while the rice is cooking.

Place the pine nuts in a sauté pan over medium-low heat (you don’t need any oil), and toast the nuts for a few minutes, stirring constantly. As with the vermicelli, some pieces will get darker than others. This is OK as long as they don’t blacken. It’s important not to step away from the stove while doing

this because pine nuts can char in a minute.

Remove the nuts from the hot pan and set aside.

Once the rice has sat for 5 minutes, remove the lid from the pot and fluff the rice with a fork.

Stir half of the nut mixture into the rice.

When it’s time to serve the rice, sprinkle

the remaining nuts on top.

This recipe is vegan and pareve and will serve 4 people as a side dish. If you’re having a larger crowd, simply double the recipe. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

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For home delivery, call 410.902.2308.

Every Friday in the and all the time online @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

For home delivery, call 410.902.2308.

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p Rice with vermicelli

Photo by Wade Grann

Life & Culture

From Mel Brooks to Elaine May to Ethan Coen: Producer Julian Schlossberg writes memoir about working with Jewish stars over 6 decades

— BOOKS —

By Stephen Silver | JTA

On a couple of occasions in Julian Schlossberg’s early life, he found himself in parts of the United States where some people he talked to had never met a Jewish person. The first was a stint in the Army, the second was while selling movies to rural television stations.

But over the next six decades — once Schlossberg embarked on a long and successful career that included stops as a Hollywood studio executive with Paramount Pictures and later as a prolific distributor of movies and producer of off-Broadway and Broadway shows — he was rarely the only Jew in the room ever again.

Schlossberg tells those stories and many more in his new memoir “Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life” (Beaufort Books). He writes about how he went from a child in the Bronx to an influential show business figure who mingled and worked with countless movie stars, having enjoyed a long career that shows no signs of being over at age 81.

Schlossberg was born in 1941, and grew up in what he describes as a middle-class family, in a Bronx neighborhood that at the time was heavily Jewish and Irish. His father Louis played semi-pro baseball, but as Schlossberg writes in the book, turned down the chance to play for a team in Kansas City in part because “there were almost no Jews in baseball.” Instead, Louis Schlossberg spent most of his professional life working in Manhattan’s Garment District.

The family lived near the Kingsbridge Armory, then likely the largest of its kind in the world, which hosted conventions, car shows and rodeos that came through the city at the time. Those rodeos, in fact, were Schlossberg’s introduction to showbiz.

“I would go as a kid and just revel in the fact that I was meeting these incredible stars,” he said.

Meeting stars would eventually become commonplace. Before and after his time in the Army in the early 1960s, Schlossberg worked as a cab driver, a busboy, a waiter, a counselor, a typist and more while taking college classes at night. He got a job at the ABC in 1964 and worked his way up the company’s ranks.

“I had decided, as a very young man, that since I didn’t have a law degree or a dental degree or a medical degree, I was going to learn every aspect of show business that I could,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was going to do, but I knew that knowledge was power, and that if I had knowledge, maybe I’d get some power.”

He would live out that goal, working in just about every area of entertainment, from radio to movie distribution to theater producing. (He goes back and forth on

In the 1970s, he hosted an AM radio show called “Movie Talk,” for which he interviewed hundreds of movie stars. WMCA station executives wanted Schlossberg to use a different stage name, to sound less Jewish.

“They didn’t want it to be ‘a Jewish name,’ and I said ‘Wait a second — if I’m going to be on the air in New York City, I can’t be a Jew?’ So they gave in, and I kept my name,” he said. “You kind of want to remember the times you did stand up, I guess. Not that it was a giant standing up, but I would have not done the show if they had asked me to change my name, because it made no sense to me.”

Speaking of Jews, Schlossberg has worked with a virtual who’s-who of famous Jewish entertainers over the years, from Neil Simon to Lillian Hellman to Sid Caesar to Mike Nichols to Peter Falk to Ethan Coen. And the ones he didn’t work with, he hung out with socially. Barbra Streisand invited him to a famous birthday party (that ended up taking place at Liza Minnelli’s house), and Mel Brooks has always greeted him as “Schloss Berg,” as if his name were two words.

Schlossberg’s film production credits range from the 1994 British mystery “Widows’ Peak,” starring Natasha Richardson and Mia Farrow; to the 1980 “No Nukes” documentary that filmed an anti-nuclear weapons concert with the likes

to a revival of the long-buried version of Orson Welles’ “Othello.”

In 1995, Schlossberg worked with three prominent Jews on one off-Broadway production: a set of one-act plays performed together each night, called “Death Defying Acts,” written by Woody Allen, David Mamet and Elaine May. Schlossberg later produced the Broadway adaptation of Allen’s movie “Bullets Over Broadway,” while May, whom Schlossberg likens to a sister, contributed the forward to his book.

“Elaine is, as I’ve written, the smartest person I’ve ever met, and probably one of the most talented if not the most talented, because there is nothing that she cannot do,” Schlossberg said of the now 90-year-old Oscar, Tony and Grammy winner. “She’s a great actress, she’s a great writer, and she’s a great director. And she’s a hell of a friend.”

At one point in his career, as he details in one chapter, Schlossberg crossed paths with another Jewish producer: Harvey Weinstein. When Weinstein was young, the nowdisgraced serial sexual harasser approached Schlossberg and asked him to teach him the movie business. The two men worked together for a time, although eventually they fell out.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought he would hit the heights that he hit, or the depths that he sunk to. Never,” Schlossberg said.

experiences ended on a more positive note.

Mark S. Golub, a rabbi, came to Schlossberg for advice in the late 1990s on learning the theater business. Golub, who died late last month at 77, went on to become a prolific Broadway producer and the founding president of the Jewish Broadcasting Service channel.

It was a fruitful partnership: Golub learned about the industry, and Schlossberg absorbed lessons about Judaism.

“It was a very interesting combination, of somebody who certainly knew a great deal about Judaism, and myself, who was learning a lot by that time about [Judaism],” Schlossberg said. “It was interesting to me to be partners with a rabbi.”

Schlossberg had several projects set to go at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but when the industry shut down, he wrote his memoir instead. Now he’s looking to rev up some of those projects. Next up on the docket is “Tales From the Guttenberg Bible,” an autobiographical, four-character play written by and starring the Jewish actor Steve Guttenberg. It is now set for its world premiere in April, at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

“I think audiences will respond to it, because he’s so kind and personable and living ... a nice Jewish boy,” Schlossberg said of Guttenberg. PJC

p Julian Schlossberg, center, is shown with Elaine May and Alan Arkin. Schlossberg’s memoir looks back at all the celebrities he met — many of them Jewish — during his career as a prolific producer.

Photo courtesy of Julian Schlossberg

The great Burt Bacharach album that nobody’s talking about

By Dan Epstein | Forward

The obituaries for the late, great Burt Bacharach have been pretty much what you’d hope and expect for a true giant of 20th-century pop music. Bacharach’s fruitful songwriting collaborations — especially with Hal David, Carole Bayer Sager and Elvis Costello — have been rightfully celebrated, as have his many hits and awards, along with his music’s wide-ranging influence.

But when you’ve won six Grammys, two Oscars, and had your songs recorded and sent up the charts by the likes of Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Butler, Sergio Mendes, Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension and Neil Diamond, it’s perhaps inevitable that some of your finest work should get lost amid the glittering prizes. And indeed, “Reach Out,” Bacharach’s 1967 solo LP, has largely gone unmentioned in his obits — even though it may well be the most perfect album-length distillation of Bacharach’s music ever waxed.

That “Reach Out” has been overlooked is not particularly surprising, considering that it was basically a commercial flop. “Reach Out” was Bacharach’s first album for A&M Records, and the label (which was making a conscious effort to avoid the psychedelic fumes wafting out of the “Summer of Love”) released it in September 1967 as part of a multi-artist launch that included similarly adult listener-oriented records by Claudine Longet, Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

But despite A&M’s considerable promotional efforts, Bacharach’s already lofty reputation as a songwriter, and the fact that Bacharach’s “Casino Royale” soundtrack had been a Top 25 hit that summer, “Reach Out” stalled at No. 149 on the Billboard 200 and dropped straight into the bargain bin — where it has basically resided ever since.

That’s where I found my first copy of “Reach Out” back in the mid-’90s, for a buck or two at a thrift shop in LA’s Fairfax District. Though long a big fan of Warwick’s Bacharach-David hits, I’d never even heard of the album. But I gleaned from the conductor-ific photos on the front cover (and former Beatles PR flak Derek Taylor’s overblown liner notes on the back) that this was largely an instrumental affair; and since I loved the instrumental arrangements (and the sounds of the instruments themselves) on Warwick’s recordings — like the perky Alpert-esque trumpet on “I Say a Little Prayer,” or the sullenly rolling piano on “Walk On By” — I figured this album might provide more of the same. Which, in retrospect, was a little like saying I figured I might be able to get a snack at my Jewish grandmother’s house.

Musically and sonically, “Reach Out” is an absolute feast, a sumptuous 11-course aural meal that blends a wide variety of instrumental ingredients to absolute perfection. Nine of the album’s 11 songs are Bacharach-David compositions that had already been hits for other artists, like “The Look of Love,” “Alfie” and “Reach Out for Me,” though this time out they’re arranged to let different instruments carry the bulk of the melodies. (Female voices occasionally swoop in for the choruses, but the verses are

strictly vocal-free.) Without the distraction of lead vocals, you’re able to get further inside the music and gain a greater understanding of how Bacharach’s jazzy chord progressions, irregular time signatures and asymmetrical melodies fit together and play off of each other; it’s like pulling off the back of an astronomical clock to view its sophisticated inner workings. Though there is unfortunately no information in the album’s liner notes or elsewhere as to which musicians actually played on “Reach Out,” engineers Phil Ramone and Henry Lewy recorded them beautifully. Even on the album’s most dynamic and bombastic numbers, like “I Say a Little Prayer” and “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” the instruments are balanced perfectly with each other, even as their constant movement expands and retracts your perception of the space in which the songs are being played. (A&M may have taken an anti-psychedelic stance, but that clearly didn’t prevent them from releasing mind-blowing music.)

At the end of “Are You There (With Another Girl),” there’s a moment where the rest of the musicians and vocalists fall away, leaving the organist to wrap things up with a liquid little right-hand lick while he holds down a steady bass note with his left. Even when you’re listening to the track in sonically degraded form on something like Spotify or YouTube, you still feel like you’re sitting so close to the organ that you can actually make out the woodgrain of its cabinet; and if you’re listening to it on a good stereo system, that moment can induce full-on goosebumps.

I’ve seen several references online in the wake of Bacharach’s passing to the “schmaltzy” nature of his music. And while he was certainly guilty of going in that direction at times — especially on later hits like “Arthur’s Theme” and “Heartlight” — there’s very little schmaltz to be found on “Reach Out.” (“Lisa,” a treacly Bacharach-David composition which made its debut here, is the unfortunate exception.)

The album’s overall sound and mood could easily be considered cocktail-friendly, but not in a campy or cheesy way; if anything, the roiling, conflicted and profoundly adult emotions already running through these songs are somehow further magnified here by the lack of lyrics. And on “A House is Not a Home,” Bacharach himself delivers the album’s lone lead vocal in a performance so convincingly bereft, you’ll almost forget that he was actually married to Angie Dickinson at

the time he recorded it.

The album’s lack of immediate success didn’t seem to impact Bacharach’s career in any significant way; just two years later, he would write the Oscar-winning original score for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” which included the multi-million-selling Bacharach-David song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” — and which provided enough of a commercial tailwind to drag both “Reach Out” and its similar-if-slightly-inferior solo follow-up “Make It Easy on Yourself” to “gold” status by the end of 1970. But it does seem to have negatively

impacted the album’s legacy; for whatever reason, it’s not an album that seems to be taken seriously by critics or musical historians. Even in an age where one forgettable album after another is getting the 180-gram vinyl reissue treatment for Record Store Day, “Reach Out” hasn’t been reissued in the U.S. since it came out on CD in 1995, just a year or so after I dug up my first thrift shop copy. Since that fateful day nearly 30 years ago, I have never been without “Reach Out” in one format or another, and usually in multiple ones; I even recently bought a reel-to-reel tape of it on eBay. “Reach Out” is truly a “desert island disc” for me, in the same way that, say, Love’s “Forever Changes” or “Queen II” are; as with those albums, I feel a rush of intense emotions every time I spin it, while also always finding new things to marvel at in the music, and in the way the songs are constructed and arranged. It remains a wonderfully life-affirming listening experience, yet it’s one that can still be found languishing at thrift shops and antique malls everywhere, nestled ingloriously among all those Vaughn Meader and John Gary albums that no one ever wants to hear again. So reach out for “Reach Out” — Burt Bacharach may have left us, but his greatest album is still here. PJC

This story originally appeared in the Forward. To get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox, go to forward.com/newsletter-signup.

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p Burt Bacharach’s “Reach Out” stalled out at No. 149 on the Billboard charts. Photo courtesy of Amazon

Celebrations

Substance over flash

Substance isn’t sexy. This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, is the first in 71 chapters of biblical text to depart from engaging stories and dramatic scenes; instead, it gives us roughly 53 commandments of things we ought to do and things we ought not to do. We get three chapters of nothing but laws.

Manslaughter. Property damage. Indentured servitude. Murder. Personal injury. Theft. Torts. Bailments. Collateral and debt collection. Abuse. Theft. Sorcery. A fair system of jurisprudence. The sabbatical year. Shabbat. Idol worship.

complexity and nuance to something longer and written out. Torah, and particularly Parshat Mishpatim with its long list of sometimes arcane commandments, is certainly this way. Flashy is great in small chunks, but it isn’t going to capture your imagination to the same degree as substance. Nobody is going to argue that a funny TikTok video is as impactful as “The Godfather.”

Doing mitzvot — the well-known ones like keeping kosher and keeping Shabbat, wearing tefillin and tallit, attending services, visiting the sick, giving tzedakah; and the less well-known ones like writing a Torah or keeping fair weights and measures — are about substance. They are a lifelong practice. They aren’t often as dramatic or engaging as the big stories or miracles of the Torah, but they make up 99% of what and who

Mazel Tov!

Debbi and Tom Samakow of Boca Raton Florida, formerly of Squirrel Hill, joyfully announce the marriage of their son Justin Julius to Stephanie Louise Keats, daughter of Marie and Steven Keats of Lake Worth, Florida, formerly of Woodland Hills, California. Justin’s grandparents are the late Norman and Gloria Wedner and the late Malcolm and Marion Samakow. Stephanie’s grandparents are the late Wellman and Louise Stelter and the late Robert and Jean Keats. Justin received his undergraduate degree in 2011 from Washington University in St Louis. Justin received his MBA from Harvard University Business School in May 2018 and is working as a consultant for Mirakl Co. from Paris. Stephanie received her undergraduate degree in 2011 from the University of Southern California. Stephanie received her Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2014. Stephanie is licensed to practice law in New York and works at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. The ceremony and reception took place on June 4, 2022, at Tappan Hill Mansion in Westchester, New York. Justin and Stephanie enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon in the French Polynesia islands, and reside in Brooklyn, New York. PJC What

But so is a birthday, a graduation, an athletic victory, an academic achievement…anything that deserves special recognition.

For attorneys and legal scholars, this section is infinitely fascinating — and there are hundreds of worthwhile elaborations, debates and side discussions one might be consumed with. This section will not, however, be optioned by Steven Spielberg for a new film.

The flashy parts of the Torah — the miracles, the plagues and the dramatic scenes between characters — grab your attention and hold it. Those parts are also more memorable. Just ask any bnai mitzvah child who has been assigned Parshat Mishpatim, or Tetzaveh (all about priestly garb), or Tazria-Metzora (skin ailments), and they’ll tell you that the non-narrative detail parts of Torah are less appealing than, say, Lech Lecha (Sarah and Abraham are promised the land of Israel), or Yitro (God appears at Sinai).

This is the same phenomenon as recognizing that an Instagram post or a YouTube video is more engaging than a scholarly article. The video is certainly easier to watch and more entertaining. But there’s far more

we are as Jews.

There is a midrash that notes that the word Torah — spelled taf, vav, resh, hay — has the numerical equivalent in Gematria of 611, which is two short of the number of commandments, 613. That’s because God gave the first two commandments, “I am the Lord your God” and “You shall have no other Gods before Me” directly to the people. They had to learn the rest of the commandments from Moses.

God was a big, flashy moment. The learning and the doing of being a moral, good and holy person? That takes a lot of work. Substance isn’t sexy, but it is essential.

L’Shalom. PJC

Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman is the spiritual leader for Brith Shalom Jewish Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the associate rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.

Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman Parshat Mishpatim Exodus 21:1 – 24:18

[Mitzvot] aren’t often as dramatic or engaging as the big stories or miracles of the Torah, but they make up 99% of what and who we are as Jews.

Obituaries

BERMAN: Don Berman passed away at home on Feb. 3, 2023. Don was born in Pittsburgh, on April 15, 1925, to Joseph and Anna Berman. Don graduated from Westinghouse High School in 1941 and enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT). His education was interrupted in 1944 when he was drafted into service in the United States Army. He spent approximately two years in the armed forces and returned to CIT where he earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in metallurgy. Prior to entering the service, Don met Helen Lebowitz who had enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh. That first meeting occurred in 1942 at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) building in Oakland. After both Don and Helen obtained their bachelor’s degrees in 1947, they were married at the Old Fort Pitt Hotel. After spending three years with Standard Steel Spring, Don changed the course of his career when he accepted a job as a draftsman at Green Engineering Company in Sewickley. He soon became a fixture at Green where he rose to the position of chief draftsman. Major projects completed under his guidance were the towers on the Verazzano Bridge in New York and the Jefferson Memorial Arch in St. Louis. During this time, he studied for and earned his Professional Engineer’s license as a structural engineer. Don was placed in charge of the team that designed the public facilities (streets, street lighting, sidewalks, sewers and water lines) for the Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh’s East Liberty urban renewal project. Shortly thereafter, he took over as manager of the Municipal Division at Green and was responsible for all municipal contracts which included planning for and designing of municipal streets, sewage collection and treatment systems, water treatment and distri bution systems and solid waste management plans. This is when his passion for environmental engineering began. His environmental division at Green completed a countywide sewage facilities plan and began preparation for a countywide water facilities plan. In the late 1960s, many munic ipalities in Allegheny County were experiencing a huge increase in their solid waste management costs and requested that the county prepare a solid waste management plan aimed at addressing that situation. Green received the contract for that project and under Don’s leadership, his staff developed a plan which envisioned the establishment of a Division of Waste Management to implement a plan calling for county-owned landfills and transfer stations. He was asked and agreed to join the county staff to fill the position of division head. Don’s first accomplishment was the siting and construction of the North Hills Transfer Station. In1974 he was appointed director of Allegheny County’s Department of Works where his responsibilities were expanded to include construction or rehabilitation and maintenance of the county’s 400 bridges and 400 miles of roads. In 1977, after a change in leadership at the county, Don decided to return to the private sector and rejoined the green staff where he led the effort to complete federally and state mandated water quality plans for 20 counties in the western third of Pennsylvania. When Allegheny County was mandated to develop recycling plans for all municipalities with a population of over 5000 residents, Don led the effort to complete that plan which included an educational element for grades one through 12. That educational element won a national award. Again, as a result of his work, in 1989, Don was asked to rejoin the county staff to implement both the waste disposal efforts and the recycling efforts recommended in the plan. Until his retirement in 1997, he continued to assist local governments in their recycling efforts. He was called upon to speak in numerous forums and was a lecturer on solid waste matters at the University of Pittsburgh’s Public School of Health. During his active career, Don was a member of and chaired many engineering and environmental organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Public Works Association, the Society of American Military Engineers and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. After retiring from fulltime employment, he offered solid waste and recycling consulting services to various counties in the commonwealth. Don, above all, was the loving patriarch of our family (Papa Don). He also loved traveling with Helen, tennis, reading, crossword puzzles, his computer and his Pittsburgh sports teams. He is survived by Helen, his wife of 75 years, his two children Beth and Paul (Jane), four grandchildren, Patrick (Marie), Andy (Ashley), Seth (Theresa), and Molly (Harris) and eight great-grandchildren, Faith, Aiden, Cameron, Axel, Liam, Ainsley, Benny and Raffi. His wisdom, wit and love will be greatly missed. No services are planned at this time. Donations in his memory may be made to the Sewickley Public Library, Quaker Valley Ambulance Authority, or the Edgeworth Police Department.  Arrangements were entrusted to the John Syka Funeral Home, 833 Kennedy Drive, Ambridge, PA 15003.

FELDMAN: Sylvia Feldman, aged 102, of La Jolla, California, formerly of Pittsburgh passed away on Jan. 1, 2023. Sylvia June Swartz was born on June 17, 1920, to the late Israel and Bertha Klatman Swartz, an immigrant family who struggled to make ends meet. Sylvia graduated from high school at age 16 and from the University of Pittsburgh in 1940. During her early teen years, she met the love of her life, Ben Dobkin, and they married in 1941. As the war began, she accompanied Ben to postings around the country, heading back to Pittsburgh when he shipped out to the Pacific theater. Together they had three sons — Richard (Francine), David (Suzanne Gespass) and Larry (Janet), who survive her. Sylvia was an early career woman. As her children grew, she became a substitute teacher and then a classroom teacher in business education. She returned to school for a master’s degree in her 50s and established herself as a guidance counselor before her retirement. Ben passed away in 1986, and soon after, Sylvia married the second love of her life, Dan Feldman. They began a new life together in San Diego and spent the next two decades traveling the world while being active members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UCSD. Her stepchildren through Dan — Linda and Gary — also survive her. Besides her children and stepchildren, Sylvia leaves a legacy of seven grandchildren spread across the globe and 10 great-grandchildren ranging in age from 1 to 19. Sylvia lived a remarkable life, fully experiencing every decade she lived through. The Depression shaped her childhood and World War II impacted her early adulthood. The civil rights movement, and later the human potential movement, changed her career path. In her retirement, she continued her education while also embracing new technologies — the personal computer and the internet. In each period of her life, Sylvia

experienced the world and the world influenced her journey. Memorial contributions can be made to Jewish Family Services of San Diego or Silverado Hospice of San Diego, both of which provided excellent care to Sylvia in her later years, or to a charity of your choice.

Pittsburgh native Dr. David Michael Israel, age 73, of Tempe, Arizona, passed away on Feb. 4, 2023. The funeral service was held Feb. 8, 2023, at Valley of the Sun Mortuary & Cemetery in Chandler, Arizona. David was a graduate of Peabody High School, Arizona State University and Logan College of Chiropractic. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, sons Cary (Michelle) and Jamie, granddaughters Lily and Haylee, brothers Steve, Ken and Jim and their families. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at valleyofthesunfuneralhome.com for the Israel family.

KORNBLITH: Dr. Paul Kornblith, Jan. 15, 1938 – Jan. 10, 2023. Paul was born in Philadelphia, graduated from Central High School at age 16 and attended Temple University and Jefferson Medical College. Upon graduation, he served two years active duty in the U.S. Army, one stationed in Korea and one in Valley Forge Military Hospital, then five years in the Army Reserves. Paul had an illustrious career in neurosurgery, including teaching at Harvard Medical School, serving as chief of surgical neurology at the National Institutes of Health, then as chief of neurosurgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center before being appointed professor and vice chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In 1993, growing out of his life-long research in tissue culture, he founded a bio-medical company, Precision Therapeutics. A pioneer in precision medicine and an anchor for Pittsburgh’s then-new biotech sector, the company grew cells from cancerous tumors and then tested chemotherapy medicines in the lab, rather than on the patient. The technologies honed as the company’s CEO and scientific leader have extended thousands of lives. Employment at PTI grew to a peak of over 200 employees. In 2019 PTI merged with Helomics Corporation, now a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Predictive Oncology. Dr. Kornblith is survived by his children, Nicholas Kornblith, Robin Sneider and Margot Carter, and grandchildren, Marina, David, Kai, Lana, Mara, Sarah and Matthew. He is also survived by his ex-wife, Judy Kornblith Kobell. Funeral services were on Jan. 12, in Austin, Texas.

LANDO: Michael Stanley Lando, 82, passed away peacefully at home in the loving arms of his wife, Fran, daughter, Barbara Lando, and son, Yotam Ben-Artzi (formerly Jim Lando) on Feb. 7, 2023. Son of the late Jennie and Ithamar (Sumy) Lando and brother of the late Philip Lando, Michael is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of 62 years, Fran Lando, Yotam (wife Leigh Winston), Barbara (husband Stephen Ziff) and grandchildren Samantha Winston (fiancé Alex Lehman), Daniel Lando of Brooklyn, New York, Lily and Sal Ziff of Vancouver, British Columbia, and many nieces and nephews. Michael graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School, the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Anne X. Alpern and was a partner at Berkman, Ruslander, Pohl, Lieber and Engel before purchasing Fairman Wallpaper from his in-laws, George and Ruth Fairman. He and Fran expanded the business into American Discount Wallcovering and eventually acquired Peerless Wallpaper and Blinds. Michael loved to cook and lived to eat good food whether it be from a roadside truck selling pork in Puerto Rico or from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris. He planned vacations around the restaurants he wanted to eat at and the local foods he wanted to sample. He bit into life and kept chewing. Curiosity was a fundamental part of his being. He spent hours reading, studying and investigating his abiding interest in social justice and was undeterred from expressing his progressive views on civil rights, inequality, LGBTQ and women’s rights and Jewish/Palestinian dialogue. The family is grateful to his incredible caregiver, Marcie Carter, physical therapist, Tyler Ho, and for Gallagher’s Palliative Care and Hospice staff who all treated Mike with respect and kindness. In lieu of a “Double-Strength Hefty Bag to the Curb,” funeral services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment New Light Cemetery. Donations may be made to the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry or the American Civil Liberties Union. schugar.com

LEVINE: Rose K. Levine passed away peacefully at the age of 103 at her home in New Castle, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 7, 2023. She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Gilbert, her son Norman, her parents Abraham and Freda Katz, and her siblings George Katz, Bella Myers and Sippy Neimark. She is survived by her sons Stanley Levine (Barbara Weschler) and Ellis Levine and her seven grandchildren, Arin (Ryan) Keough, Brian Levine, Jessica (Manny) Levine, Bradley (Brittany) Levine, Aubra Levine, Heather Levine (Nate Ajiashvili) and Adam Levine. She was also blessed with 10 wonderful and beautiful great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She was fiercely proud of her Judaism, kept kosher her entire life and was a life member of both the National Council of Jewish Woman and Hadassah. She was also a very active volunteer for Jamison Hospital, Meals on Wheels and Lark Auxiliary. She loved sporting events and was a decades-long fan of New Castle High School basketball — but her greatest thrill was watching her own children and grandchildren play baseball, basketball, soccer and tennis, and clearly her greatest joy was being with her family. A funeral service was held at the Cunningham Funeral Home. Interment at the Temple Hadar Cemetery in New Castle. Contributions in Rose’s

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memory may be made to Wheels on Meals at PO Box 5122, New Castle, PA 16105. Online condolences can be left and viewed by visiting.cunninghamfh.com.

MILLER: Stanley I. Miller (Stan) passed away at home surrounded by the love of family and friends on Feb. 5, 2023, at age 93. Stan was born on Aug,17, 1929, in Pittsburgh, to Gussie and George Miller. He graduated from Peabody High School and the University of Pittsburgh, and served his country in the Navy reserves. His family and friends will always remember his generosity, his quick wit and his remarkable work ethic. He would offer advice when asked and was an excellent listener. Stan enjoyed a successful career in manufacturing and sales that took him all over the world. He leaves behind his wife, three children, stepson, sister, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He will be greatly missed by his wife, Marilyn Carlson, daughter Janet Lebovitz (Marc), son Marc Miller (Sandra), son Alan Miller, stepson Stefan Ravello, sister Linda Stone (Arthur), grandson Ben Lebovitz (Jennifer), Zach Lebovitz (MacKenzie), Kallie Miller-Hines (Dave), Sam Miller, Daisy Miller (Quentin LaBiche), great-grandson Ethan Lebovitz, great-granddaughter Olivia Lebovitz, great-granddaughter Mila Lebovitz, and rescue dogs Molly and Romeo. We are forever grateful for the loving care and compassion provided by all of Stan’s caregivers over the past nine years. In particular, we want to thank Lizbeth Lopez and Salvador Martinez, Jr. who have been with us since 2015 and are now members of our family. In lieu of flowers, donations in Stan’s memory may be sent to LightBridge Hospice (lbhcf.org/gifts-of-gratitude/), Labrador Rescuers (labrescuers.org/donate) or Labs and More (labsandmore.org/donate/).

MORGAN: Attorney John J. (Jack) Morgan, age 88, died Feb. 5, 2023. He was a graduate of Villanova University and Duquesne University School of Law. He was a Navy fighter pilot and ended his 20-year military career as a colonel in the Air Force with a number of decorations. Attorney Morgan

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

Anonymous Phillip Caplan Anonymous Miriam Kopelson

Anonymous Fannye Taper

Rachel Letty Americus Bessie Taback Americus

Rachel Letty Americus

Dava Berkman

had a general practice legal career with an emphasis on litigation and was also a respected neutral labor arbitrator. He traveled the world with his wife, Ellen Sue Caldwell, was an avid sportsman, and a loving father and grandfather. Survivors include his loving wife, five children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, sister-in-law, as well as friends from all over the world. Arrangements by Laughlin Cremation and Funeral Tributes.

SITTIG: Dr. Michael Sittig (May 2, 1947 – Feb. 12, 2023). Beloved husband and soulmate of the late Sheila Podolsky Sittig. Beloved brother of William (Ellen) Sittig, Diane Havrilla and Cindy Thompson, all of Pittsburgh. Beloved brother-in-law of Dr. Terry (Podolsky) McDonald of Sarasota, Florida. Beloved brother of the late Linda and Sharon. Beloved son of the late Laverne and William Sittig. Beloved son-in-law of the late Florence and Harry Podolsky. Also many nieces, nephews and friends. Dr. Sittig served his country in the Navy and earned a BS from Duquesne University, a master’s from The New School in NYC, and eventually a PhD in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Pittsburgh. After that, Michael sat for and passed the psychology licensing exam. He practiced mostly in rehabilitation facilities, honing his skills as a neuropsychologist. Dr. Sittig belonged to both the Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, serving on the board and as president of the former. Dr. Sittig and his wife, Sheila, cared for many dogs over the years, delighting in their dogs’ playful antics. Michael enjoyed moving dirt and gardening in the backyard. He also enjoyed all things technological. He was an amazing caregiver for his wife, kind, protective and empathetic. He will be missed by so many. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel. Interment Homewood Cemetery. Donations may be made to The Humane Society, Kidney Foundation, The American Heart Association, or a charity special to you. schugar.com

STOEHR: Irene Stoehr, a native of Pittsburgh, passed away on Feb. 10, 2023, at the blessed age of 98 years young. Irene recently resided in the suburbs of Northbrook, Illinois. She was a deeply devoted and loving wife of 52 years to the late Harry Stoehr, cherished mother of Cindy and Dr. James Tauberg of Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, and Cantor Steven and Susan Stoehr of Northbrook, Illinois. Proud grandmother (and Sweetiepie) of Jennifer (Tauberg) and Jason Kwicien of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Brandon and Lauren Tauberg and Joshua Tauberg of Pittsburgh, Jacob and Ilana Stoehr of Livingston, New Jersey, Talia Stoehr of Chicago, and Alana Stoehr of Los Angeles. Adoring

Please see Obituaries, page 21

Leo Morris Americus

Bernard Berkman

Susan Cohen Blanche Schwartz

Michael Cushner

Sharon & Morry Feldman

Joan Finkel.......................................................

Sherwin F Glasser

Edward M Goldston

Marjorie Halpern

Ilene Trachtenberg Iskoe

Amy R Kamin

Judith and Falk Kantor

Shirley Kurtz Z”L

Janice E Mankin

Rona Mustin

Maxine & Larry Myer

Marion & Alan Reznik

Simma & Lawrence Robbins

Ross Rosen

Richard, Mindy, and Logan Stadler

Anne D Rosenberg

Audrey Silverman

Samuel Cushner

Je rey S Weiss

.Benjamin & Miriam Silberman

Jeannette Kurtz

David Brown

Leonard Chasick

Martha Trachtenberg

Samuel Kamin

Louis Kantor

Saul Kurtz

Marci Sulkin

Azriel Meyer Sachs

Oscar Zidenstein

Isadore Bergstein

Yitzhak Nadler

Sylvia Rosen

Abe & Millie Platt

Jacob & Minnie Rosenberg

Jean G Semins

Sharon Snider ...................................................................... . Joel Baum

Ronald M Tepper

Gertrude Tepper

Marc J Tepper Gertrude Tepper

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

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —

Sunday December 25: Abraham B Amper, Philip Anolik, Sophie Auerbach, Gertrude Brody, Leah Canter, Esther Covel, Anne M Darling, Harry Friedman, Mendel Helfand, Morris Herr, Samuel Horelick, Samuel Kamin, Julius Skigen, Mary Davis Solomon, Esther Spiro, David Zytnick

Monday December 26: Meyer Borofsky, David Brown, Morris Goldberg, Gertrude Grossman, Edward Haims, Leeba Hausman, Lillian Ho man, Abram Katkisky, Helen Klein, Sam Lavine, Jacob Levine, Max Malkin, Morris Malt, Minnie Rosenberg, Rachel She ler Shuklansky, Abe Weiner, Louis Weiss, Gussie Wolf

Tuesday December 27: Bessie Taback Americus, Louis Cohen, Isadore Dektor, Rachel Eisenberg, Dora Feldman, Sarah R Fineman, Ida Goldberg, Adolph Gra , Jacob Horewitz, Joseph R Kaufman, Isadore Libson, Milton Emanuel Linder, Morris T Mason, Ben Neiman, Anna Goldie Pearlman, Gertrude Tepper, Martha Trachtenberg, Anna H Wolfe, Ann Yecies

Wednesday December 28: Milton Abes, Max H Barnett, Harry Cohen, Joseph Cohen, Sarah Finkelstein, Leonard M Friedman, Norman B Goldfield, Sadye Goldstein, Minna Hohenstein, David Kaplan, Dr Edward Kaplan, Sarah Kaufman, Rose G Klein, Charlotte Reiter, Isaac Rosenberg, Bertha B Rosenfeld, Joseph Rosenthal, Freda Rosenthall, Blanche Schultz, Celia Soloman, Samual Spokane, Ruth Steiger, Isaac Zuckerman

Thursday December 29: Samuel Barasch, Henrietta Caplan, Ida Danenberg, Morris Finkelstein, Milton I Freedman, Abe I Friedman, Rose Goldenberg, Dorothy Goldstein, Carl Gussin, Sadye Judd, Jack Le , Lena Lefkowitz, Aaron Mallinger, Bella W Marks, Solomon Neustein, Betty F Paull, Emanuel Perlow, Lee Radbord, Bertha Rosenfeld, Alice Shapiro, Miriam Silberman, Julius Silverman, Janina Winkler, Pauline Zalevsky

Friday December 30: Lewis Amper, Sarah Louise Bernstein, Esther Eisenstadt, Maurice Finkelpearl, Dorothy Frankel, Lena Friedman, Hyman Gerson, Alice Goodstein, Elizabeth Green, Ilse Halle, Ephraim Hurwitz, Gizella Kovacs, Saul Kurtz, Rose S Levine, Orin J Levy, Tillie Lipson, Max A Loevner, Jane Margowsky, Lucille R. Mermelstein, Sam Osgood, Rev Samuel Rattner, Pearl R Rosenberg, Ida R Roth, Edward Schlessinger

Saturday December 31: Joel Baum, Helen Buck, David Canter, Leonard Chotiner, Yetta Cohen, Raymond Friedman, Samuel Gescheidt, Joseph Goldstein, Saul I Heller, Emanuel Horewitz, Gus Kline, Elliott Kramer, Anna Kurtz, Jeannette G Kurtz, Ethyl Sapper Levenson, Lynette A London, Rose Mendlow, Charles Mervis, Solomon J. Metlin, Yitzhak Nadler, Milton D. Patz, David C. Pollock, Lena Robin, Pincus P. Rosenthal, Edward Schugar, Martha Shapira, Jack Steinfeld, Anna Tarshis, Donna Mae Zimring

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Obituaries

Obituaries:

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great-grandmother to Madison, Bryce and Ryder Kwicien, Hayden and Hudson Tauberg and Liv Stoehr. Irene was a proud member of B’nai Emunoh Congregation in Pittsburgh and Congregation Beth Shalom of Northbrook. She found life’s pleasures in her family and the friends she cherished. If you wish to honor her memory, she had requested, due to her fondness for Northbrook’s Congregation Beth Shalom, that any such donations be directed to the Cantor Stoehr’s Goods and Welfare Fund. bethshalomnb.org. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Beth Shalom Cemetery 1501 Anderson Road, in Pittsburgh. schugar.com

WACHS: Esther (Trudy) Wachs, 86, of Pittsburgh, died peacefully on Feb. 6, 2023, at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, the city she loved and lived in most of her life. While training as a registered nurse, she met her husband, Dr. Hirsh Wachs, and married him at 18 years of age, defying the “no married students allowed” rule. Her work as a nurse was put aside in order for her to spend her time on her most important job: raising, loving and nurturing four children. While they were young, she gave them unconditional love, joy and permission to play and be kids. Later, as they grew, she returned to work-life as a nurse in the field of geriatrics, creating adult day care in Pittsburgh. Her center in Mt. Lebanon, named Council Care, helped so many families keep their loved ones at home with the support of this song-filled center. In addition, as director of volunteers of the Jewish Home for the Aged, she taught staff and volunteers how to care for seniors in nursing homes with love, patience and humor.  In later years, she devoted much time to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. She shared her love of sports — specifically the Pirates and the Steelers — with anyone who would wave the terrible towel with her and yelp with delight when they scored. Everyone loved Trudy; she was so easy to love. She is survived by her children, Dovid Wachs (Ettie), Ellen Schall (John), Shelly Dembe (Al) and Steven Wachs (Allise), as well as her many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The funeral was held at Shaare Torah Congregation. Burial at Torath Chaim Cemetery. PJC

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Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to premiere work celebrating Jewish WW II resistance fighter

The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has announced its 2023-’24 lineup, and the season kicks off with a work of particular interest to the Jewish community. The world premiere of “Light in the Dark” is Oct. 27-29. The ballet’s story celebrates the life of Florence Waren, a Jewish dancer who lived in Paris and was part of the French Resistance during World War II. When Germany occupied France, Jews were ordered to register with the Nazis, but

Waren was urged by the owner of a music hall not to do so. She took his advice and went undetected, working as a smuggler and supplying guns to the resistance.

The work is choreographed by Jennifer Archibald and presented in partnership with the Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh. PBT officials called the choreography “haunting,” saying it emphasizes Waren’s harrowing experiences.

Two other ballets complete “Light in the Dark”: Sasha Jones’ “Loss” is a portrait of a couple dealing with the death of a child, and “Lacrimosa,” choreographed by Anabelle

Lopez Ochoa, features dance inspired by religious artwork.

The 2023-24 season is the PBT’s first with new Artistic Director Adam W. McKinney.

McKinney is a Milwaukee native who attended a Jewish day school before studying at the Milwaukee Ballet School and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

PBT’s season continues with “The Nutcracker,” Dec. 8-28; “Beauty and the Beast,” Feb. 16-25; “Spring Mix,” April 5-7; and “Cinderella, “May 17-19.” PJC

David Rullo

p “Light in the Dark” promotional image

Artist: Jessica McCann; Photo: Duane Rieder

Evening of enjoyment

Ready, set, defend

Remembering a friend

More than 100 community members gathered at Congregation Beth Shalom to remember

Competing on the same team

Students and faculty at Community Day School faced off

a friendly basketball game.

p Along with hearing from Rabbi Twersky, participants enjoyed chicken poppers and potato salad.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

p The late Pittsburgher was celebrated by friends with remarks, photos and an afternoon of congregating.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

p These are the ingredients for a great time.

Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus

p Participants learned basic skills and broke boards.

Photo courtesy of Temple Emanuel of South Hills

in

p Eighth grader Barak Raz is guarded by CDS teacher Zach Ursin.

p Sixth graders Lily Neiman and Lilly Shevitz demonstrate school spirit. Photos courtesy of Community Day School

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