The Pittsburgh Jewish community awoke on July 29 to find it had again been targeted with antisemitism.
Graffiti declaring “Jews 4 Palestine” and an inverted red triangle were painted on the front of Chabad of Squirrel Hills’ building around 1:40 a.m. The inverted red triangle has been used by Hamas to target Israeli military sites. The symbol is also used “to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
At the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the words “Funds genocide ♥ Jews, Hate Zionist” were painted on a sign outside the building.
Additionally, “We Stand with Israel” signs were defaced on private property in Squirrel Hill.
At an afternoon news conference, the Federation’s Director of Community Security Shawn Brokos said the graffiti “cannot be nuanced.”
“What we saw today,” she said, “was a direct targeting of our Jewish community by people who, through the graffiti and the messages, are supporters of Hamas. There is no other way to interpret the messaging.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said the targeting of houses of worship and antisemitic
hate have no place in the country or world.
“When we talk about religious institutions where people go to pray, they should be safe, and they should be protected,” he said. “We shouldn’t have any defacing of these properties. What happened at 1:45 in the morning cannot be tolerated.”
A timeline connecting the two events has not yet been established, Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto said, but he noted that a black sedan was captured on video at both sites.
“The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police stands committed and capable of holding those accountable for this act,” he said.
The city’s police force is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice, Scirotto said.
Chabad of Squirrel Hill Rabbi Yisroel Altein said that it is important to be clear on what’s right and wrong, what’s moral and immoral.
“This is antisemitism, period,” Altein said.
The Pittsburgh Jewish community, which continues to bear the scars of the Oct. 27, 2018, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting as well as Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, continues to be concerned with the rise in antisemitism,
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
hen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on July 24, a Pennsylvania political hopeful was in the gallery witnessing the historic speech.
Republican James Hayes, challenging incumbent Summer Lee in the commonwealth’s 12th District, said when he heard that Lee might skip the prime minister’s address, he was “embarrassed.”
“I reached out to Congressman GT Thompson, who I met the week before at the [Republican] convention, and he was gracious enough to extend an invitation, and I was able to participate through him,” Hayes said.
And while Hayes was ashamed of Lee’s
Back to School
Special
Meet Isaac Nado , paramedic
Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh were vandalized on July 29
Courtesy photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Photo by Avi Ohayon / Government Press O ce of Israel, via Wikimedia Commons
Tom Wang/Adobe Stock
Headlines
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis announces $10 million in nonprofit security grants
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
During a news conference last week at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis announced the renewal of the Nonprofit Security Grant program as part of the state budget, with $10 million available for nonprofit organizations to protect the safety and security of their facilities.
Joined by state Sen. Jay Costa, state Reps. Dan Frankel and Abigail Salisbury, Tree of Life, Inc. CEO Carole Zawatsky and the Federation’s Director of Community Security Shawn Brokos, Davis, who serves as chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, said the funding is double the amount provided the previous year.
Davis began by referencing the recent Tree of Life, Inc. groundbreaking, saying that he and Gov. Josh Shapiro attended and were greeted by a sense of hope, resilience and strength.
“I want to be clear,” Davis said, “Hate has no place here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. No matter what you look like, who you love or how you choose to worship, every Pennsylvanian deserves the right to be safe and feel safe in their community.”
The $10 million, he said, will support much-needed planning, training, equipment and technology upgrades in places of worship, community centers and other nonprofits.
This is the grant’s seventh iteration, Davis noted and said that, to date, it has provided $25 million in funding to more than 580 organizations across the commonwealth impacting about 4 million people.
Costa pointed out that while the grant is used largely by faith-based organizations, it
community-based spaces where people want to feel safe, Costa said.
Frankel, whose district includes Squirrel Hill, noted that a “hateful gunman” murdered 11 members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community on Oct. 27, 2018. He said for some individuals who were wounded in the attack, their injuries “are a constant reminder of the worst day of their lives.”
“Then there are the scars we cannot see,” Frankel said. “Those who were forced to flee their own synagogues, the first responders, the family members who waited and waited, hoping to hear that their grandma or brother were alive, the neighbors
Frankel said the commonwealth must update its anti-hate crime statutes to address modern threats.
Faith-based hate, Salisbury said, isn’t confined to the Jewish community. She referenced a gunman who entered a church in North Braddock, a community that is part of the district she represents.
Members of the Jewish community reached out to members of the church then, she said, and even attended the mass, explaining that the $10 million was vital but so was community support.
“Show up for people, reach out and see what we can do for each other,” Salisbury said.
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Zawatsky said that while she was thankful for the $10 million grant and the unwavering support of state and local leaders, she is also “sad” the money was needed at all.
The Jewish community, she noted, is experiencing antisemitism in unimaginable ways.
“Jews are increasingly afraid of being identifiably Jewish,” Zawatsky said. “This is why government investments in ensuring safety and security, like the funding provided through the nonprofit security grant program, are incredibly important.”
After the news conference, Davis was asked about the news that Shapiro is being considered as a potential running mate for
Austin said that he would prefer not to talk in hypotheticals but that if Shapiro were to join the ticket as a vice presidential candidate, he would be ready to lead
Costa said that Pennsylvania should be
“I think it’s a testament to the work he and Lt. Gov. Davis have done over the course of the last two years, working with a divided legislature, making investments in education and economic development programs like this. It’s a wonderful story.”
Frankel said that he’s had a “front-row seat” to Shapiro’s career since 2004.
“[It’s] an honor, I think, having the governor of Pennsylvania be considered for this high office,” he said.
The Federation is available to help organizations prepare applications for the Nonprofit Security Grant program. Entities do not need to be Jewish, Brokos noted.
Nonprofits can find the application at pccd. pa.gov. There is an Aug. 27 deadline. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines
Isaac Nadoff could return to Pittsburgh from Israel and be a
Isaac Nadoff won’t leave Israel. The some time Squirrel Hill resident could return to Pittsburgh, but he won’t.
“I can’t leave,” he told the Chronicle. “For me, it’s a moral obligation to stay.”
Nadoff, 30, is a paramedic in Pittsburgh. In Israel, he’s a combat medic.
On Oct. 7, Nadoff was in the Jewish state celebrating Sukkot. Years earlier, he served in the IDF. After Hamas’ attack, Nadoff wanted back in. Three weeks elapsed before he was permitted to resume duties. After his unit “worked through the bureaucracy,” he said, Nadoff returned to former tasks.
Since rejoining the IDF he’s provided first and secondary care.
The former is “initial care under fire,” he said. “If someone gets shot, and there’s a firefight, I’m the first one there rendering care.”
Administering secondary care requires assisting a doctor and staffing the medical clinic.
“If a mass casualty event happens, we roll to that, or if there’s a bad car accident in the area, we’ll roll to that,” he said.
Nadoff spoke by phone from a base near the Egyptian border.
“It’s been a long nine months,” he said. Nadoff separated the span into segments: There’s the initial time waiting to get cleared for service; the three months of reserves, including 50 days inside Gaza; the three
Nadoff is slated to resume work with his primary unit in October. He could have gone back to Pittsburgh until then. Instead, Nadoff elected to stay in Israel.
reasons for continuing to serve, went viral
“Life is going on in America and across the world, which it should, but the war is still very much real here. There are so many people here — I’m not just talking about myself — there are so many people here, Americans, that gave up their lives and they’re here serving.”
– ISAAC NADOFF
Flights are expensive, but also “there are units that need help,” he said. “I have the expertise, and the army is severely lacking paramedics and medics. I can stay and help out.”
Back in Pittsburgh Nadoff had been a paramedic for about five years and an EMT since 2012. Those duties and that life are 6,000 miles away, but friends and colleagues bridge the distance, he said.
“There’s been a lot of texts and calls,” he continued. “One of my fondest memories
last month.
“After that, I got a lot of death threats — some more credible than others — and a lot of hate stuff,” he said.
Squirrel Hill residents heard about the messages and offered support.
Nadoff appreciated the kindness.
“It really helps ground you,” he said, “and [allows you to] not only focus on all the hate you’re getting.”
Apart from the positive texts, community members have sent financial assistance.
“Pittsburgh has been able to pay for two great barbecues, which were great evenings we had on our base,” he said. Those nights enabled Nadoff and others to “just kick back and relax, and forget about the pressure for 5-10 minutes or an hour,
Nadoff said that as each day passes, his realization grows.
“Life is going on in America and across the world, which it should, but the war is still very much real here,” he said. “There are so many people here — I’m not just talking about myself — there are so many people here, Americans, that gave up their lives and they’re here serving.”
He understands he elected his path but hopes others recognize their choices as well.
“A lot of people, either consciously or subconsciously, are losing track or not paying as much attention or forgetting that this is still going on — and it’s still going on,” he said.
Nine months into a war, the daily grind is both frenetic and immutable. Since Hamas’ invasion, Nadoff has changed his locale, his responsibilities, but not his identity, he said.
On the back of his helmet is a Terrible Towel patch. The black and yellow symbol invites countless questions — mostly, “Why is it there?”
“Because I’m from Pittsburgh,” he said. “Go Steelers.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Photo courtesy of Isaac Nadoff
Campus-based Maccabi Games coming to Pittsburgh next summer
— LOCAL —
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Thanks to a partnership between the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh and the JCC Association of North America, the city will host the JCC Maccabi Campus Games next summer — and is introducing some innovations.
“What better place for this new model to be tested than in Pittsburgh, with Jewish Pittsburgh, and in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh?” said Jason Kunzman, JCC Pittsburgh’s president and CEO.
For more than four decades, the Maccabi Games have introduced more than 6,000 athletes and coaches to competition and camaraderie through a Jewish lens.
Beginning in 1982, with 300 competitors, the games have continued growing and reaching new audiences. In 1985, regional games were added. By 1997, the games were simultaneously held in six American cities, and welcomed 4,400 participating athletes, according to the JCC Association.
Development will continue next summer with a pivot toward the new Campus Games. The transition marks more than merely aban doning home hospitality at a regional sporting event, Kunzman explained.
Several competitions, housing and dining will be held on campus. Opening ceremonies will be at the Petersen Events Center.
Living, eating and competing on the University of Pittsburgh’s grounds enable the games to open its doors even wider, according to Samantha Cohen, senior vice president and director of JCC Maccabi at JCC Association of North America.
Kunzman agreed and said he’s hoping to garner the support of 1,000 volunteers in the next 14 months who will help prepare for and ensure the games’ success.
Squirrel Hill resident Dory Levine, a past Maccabi participant and parent of a two-time Maccabi athlete, said she and her husband, David, are honored to usher in a new chapter of the games.
“David and I are thrilled to co-chair the Maccabi Games alongside the other incredible chairs, volunteers and staff,” she said. “We are especially excited to host this event in our hometown in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh. We can’t wait to showcase Pittsburgh’s beauty, historic landmarks, and, of course, the incredible people that make our neighborhoods so unique.”
Joining the Levines as co-chairs are Linda and Ken Simon, Stefani Pashman and Jeremy Feinstein.
Pashman, the CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said in a prepared statement that she’s “excited to work alongside other local leaders to ensure that everyone who visits for the Games receives the warmest welcome, has the best experiences and leaves as an ambassador for Pittsburgh.”
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said that the region is “ready to provide an unforgettable experience for all
participants and visitors, with our rich history and welcoming and collaborative spirit.”
That sense of communal teamwork caught the JCCA’s eye, Kunzman said.
“Over the last five-and-a-half years, what has really come across — about not just the Jewish community within Pittsburgh, but the broader community — is our appetite and strong desire to work as collaboratively as possible for means of elevating and supporting one another,” he said, adding that Pittsburgh has “best in class facilities related to both athletics and other programming.”
Through JCC Cares, the “service arm” of the games, athletes will dedicate some of their time to volunteering and bettering the wider community.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said in a prepared statement he’s “particularly enthused by Maccabi’s commitment to give back as part of the program.”
Next summer will be the first time in 28 years that Pittsburgh is hosting the games.
Kunzman has long waited to showcase the city and credited the University of Pittsburgh with helping actualize the dream.
“We are delighted to partner with our local JCC and the continental JCC community in piloting an innovative new model of the JCC Maccabi Games,” Chancellor Joan Gabel said in a prepared statement. “The University of Pittsburgh looks forward to welcoming the athletes and their families in support of the Games’ mission to transform lives through competition, friendship, community service and social and cultural engagement.”
Fara Marcus, the JCC’s chief development and marketing officer, is encouraging the community to bolster the games’ success.
“Whether it’s a corporation, a foundation,
or an individual from anywhere, there are sponsorship opportunities to underwrite a particular sport, opportunity or an evening event,” Marcus said. “There are many ways to support.”
In promoting Pittsburgh as a national treasure, significant costs are involved: The JCC has set a fundraising goal of $3.5 million to support the games.
“At this point, we are one-third of the way there,” Kunzman said.
Contributions will offset rental accommodations, transportation, food and security expenses.
“We’re looking to have anywhere between 10 and 12 individual and team sports,” Kunzman said. “Pitt does not accommodate all of those sports … nor do they have enough to be the single site for many of the sports that they can accommodate,” Kunzman said.
Apart from locating and securing additional venues, the numerous athletes and coaches require transportation between sites. And they must be fed.
The games provide participants with kosher food, and that tradition will continue in Pittsburgh, Kunzman said.
Plans are tentative, but Kunzman said the goal is to “kasher one or two kitchens in the Peterson Event Center.”
Once the space is ritually readied, food will be prepared on site, lunch and dinner will be served there, breakfast will be delivered to rooms in a “grab-and-go kind of way,” and athletes will be able to use the Oakland-based venue as a primary hub for congregating, Kunzman said.
Among the estimated costs, nearly $500,000 is earmarked for security.
“We are fully acknowledging that safety and security is our No. 1 priority,” he said.
Kunzman said he is working with Shawn Brokos, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s director of community security, to ensure best practices are in place.
“Safety and security are paramount and we have already begun our initial planning and preparation,” Brokos said. “Security for the games will be a well-coordinated and comprehensive effort. We are grateful to have support from our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal level, as well as our university public safety departments.”
One challenge is executing a smooth and seamless experience. Once the games are complete, however, Kunzman sees another task. Pittsburgh is sending 15 athletes to this summer’s games in Detroit. He wants 100 local Jewish youth to compete in Pittsburgh next year.
“When we are successful in getting those additional 85 athletes, what are we going to do to keep them in the system,” he asked. “We’ve got to bring things to them because they’re not all going to come from Squirrel Hill or the South Hills where the JCC has a physical footprint.”
Whether it’s the money, time or personnel required, Kunzman acknowledged the tall task ahead. He’s confident this community will deliver and cited a mantra he learned from historian and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.
“We can’t only acknowledge the oy; we’ve got to celebrate the joy. That’s what this JCC is about,” Kunzman said. “It is about engaging people and activating community to build a stronger and more inclusive Jewish future. That’s our vision, and the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games are a vehicle — just one of many vehicles — for us to realize that vision.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
p JCC Pittsburgh President and CEO Jason Kunzman stands beneath a Maccabi banner from 1997, the last time Pittsburgh hosted the games. Photo by Adam Reinherz
p Past participants show Pittsburgh pride.
Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
Headlines
Local run pays tribute to fallen IDF soldier Maj. Ilay Zisser
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Running clears the mind, yet Pittsburghers are using it to preserve a memory.
On Aug. 4, athletes, joggers and walkers will gather at Frick Environmental Center for a trot around Clayton Loop. The run is in memory of Maj. Ilay Zisser, who died on Oct. 7 in Kfar Aza.
Located about 3 miles from Gaza, the southern Israeli kibbutz was overwhelmed when terrorists broke through a security fence and mercilessly attacked. Of Kfar Aza’s nearly 700 residents, about 60 were murdered, The Times of Israel reported.
On Oct. 7, Zisser was leading a mission to “rescue families and civilians held captive by terrorists,” his sister Lior Zisser-Yogev said at a memorial days after his death.
Squirrel Hill resident Karen Gal-Or is a distant relative of Zisser — Gal-Or’s grandmother and Zisser’s grandfather were siblings.
Zisser was “an extraordinary kid,” Gal-Or told the Chronicle.
Apart from serving in the IDF’s Sayeret Matkal unit, he was a self-taught guitar player, a lover of math, science and chess, and a dedicated runner.
“He had just gotten married and was building his first home with his wife,” Gal-Or said. After Zisser was killed, his brother [Ido Zisser] was “really struggling.”
Ilay Zisser loved ecology, nature and running outdoors, Gal-Or said. Ido Zisser used to run with his brother and decided to start running again as a way to “reconnect.”
Federation
T“He felt like it was the most appropriate way to honor his brother’s memory,” Gal-Or said.
Ido Zisser organizes runs in Israel almost every week.
Two weeks ago, Gal-Or was in the Jewish state and joined relatives, soldiers and friends for the trek.
“It was so beautiful,” she said. “We started at Ilay’s grave and then we ran through these beautiful wheat fields with tall sunflowers. It was extraordinary.”
Along the route, Gal-Or and fellow runners stopped.
Ido Zisser recounted his brother’s story and the area’s history. He pointed to barren spots and explained the land’s evolution. Then, when the run ended, Gal-Or said, “Everybody told stories about Ilay.”
Gal-Or was impacted by the event and Ido Zisser’s words.
helped him just reconnect with his brother and honor his memory,” she said. “It’s been such a dark time — and there’s been so much sadness in Israel and so much sadness in Gaza — and it was just a beautiful, positive way to reconnect, and to celebrate the life of a wonderful person.”
On Aug. 4, Ido Zisser will lead Pittsburghers through a similarly meaningful run.
Slated to occur at Clayton Loop, near Frick Environmental Center, the 1-mile trail was selected to enable wide participation, Gal-Or said.
Runners, walkers and other athletes often find common pacing a challenge, but Gal-Or has a plan.
Participants will gather near the fountain, toward the entrance of the park and begin a discussion at 10 a.m. Runners and walkers will then start the loop. Midway through the trail, participants will stop to chat, head out, then reconvene for snacks and conversation at the
end of the loop. The Bring Them Home vigil will follow at noon at the Frick Environmental Center, Gal-Or said.
Dayna Greenfield, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh’s athletic director, is encouraging her cross-country runners to join the event.
“As a Jew, we are obligated to show we care not just for ourselves but for others,” she said. “We are taught to show respect and rachmanus (compassion). We don’t just run to promote ourselves and win awards, but to give back to the community and show support for causes that matter.”
Adam Hertzman, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s associate vice president of marketing, said the event is a reminder of the war and continued devastation.
“Just this week, we heard unfortunately from Israel’s government that two hostages were killed in Gaza. It’s important to honor the memory of those people and remember that there are still more than 100 people held hostage, and many thousands of people who are mourning loved ones who were killed on Oct. 7 and afterwards,” he said.
Sunday’s run distills the horror, Gal-Or said.
“You look at the stories and watch the news, and everything seems so far away, so complicated and so difficult. Each person who’s suffering in Israel and Gaza, they’re all people, and I feel like this brings it down to a single person’s story,” she said. Congregating, running and sharing memories helps shift one’s mind from “the larger conflict to each person here as an individual.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
announces $13.6 million raised and $8 million in grants
he Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh announced that the community raised $13.6 million toward the Federation’s $14.5 million campaign goal.
More than $8 million of those funds will support local and overseas organizations for unrestricted operations in 2024-’25, Federation officials said.
The funding includes a $900,000 block grant from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation for local human service agencies.
The Federation’s board also granted $150,000 from the Israel Emergency Relief Fund to help the Federation’s Partnership2Gether regions, Karmiel and Misgav, combat forest fires that could break out as a result of rocket fire, according to a news release.
Later this year, the Federation will move
toward “an innovative funding model that maintains most core allocations yet prioritizes additional monies for critical community issues such as addressing antisemitism and enhancing young adult engagement,” the news release states. “Future grants in these areas will be available to all local Jewish organizations, marking a major evolution in the approach to community support.”
To address rising antisemitism, the Federation awarded one-time grants to The Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center, Penn State University Hillel, Chabad at Carnegie Mellon University and Chabad at the University of Pittsburgh “in recognition of the incredible resilience of our campus organizations. These grants, tailored to each organization’s needs, celebrate their commitment to fostering vibrant Jewish life on campus.”
“We are deeply grateful for the Federation’s support,” said Dan Marcus, the executive director and CEO of Hillel JUC. “This grant
empowers us to continue our vital work and support Jewish students during these unprecedented times.”
The Federation’s Planning and Impact committee also approved the following grants from the Jewish Community Foundation and the Centennial Fund for a Jewish Future: Classrooms Without Borders will receive funding for a yearlong training program for Jewish educators to learn how to teach about antisemitism; ElevatEd will receive funding to seed a program through a national collaboration
that helps recruit and retain early childhood educators at Jewish schools and centers.
“We are thrilled to make these allocations to vital local and overseas organizations, thanks to our donors’ incredible generosity,” said Judi Kanal, chair of the Planning and Impact committee. “This funding supports human services and campus life, reflecting our commitment to the community’s wellbeing and addresses pressing issues such as antisemitism.” PJC
Toby Tabachnick
Calendar
Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.
SATURDAY, AUG. 3
Families with young children are invited to spend Shabbat morning with Rodef Shalom at “Shabbat with You.” Drop in for a light breakfast, play date, sing-along with Cantor Toby and a Shabbat activity with Family Center Director Ellie Feibus. 9 a.m. $5 per family. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/ shabbatwithyou.
SUNDAYS, AUG. 4–DEC. 29
Join a lay-led online parshah 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.
MONDAYS, AUG. 5, SEPT. 9
Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership for one or both sessions of this healing, consciousness-building forest bathing series. Enjoy gentle walks through Pittsburgh’s parks while nurturing your connection to the natural world through reflective practices. 9:30 a.m. Free. Registration required. Walled Garden in Mellon Park. 1027healingpartnership.org/ forest-bathing-4.
MONDAYS, AUG. 5–DEC. 30
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
Join Temple Sinai for an evening of mahjong every Monday (except holidays). Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, you’re sure to enjoy
the camaraderie and good times as you make new friends or cherish moments with longtime pals. All are welcome. Winners will be awarded Giant Eagle gift cards. All players should have their own 2024 mahjong cards. Contact Susan Cohen at susan_k_cohen@yahoo.com if you have questions. $5. templesinaipgh.org.
WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 6–SEPT. 4
Join Rodef Shalom Congregation for Biblical Garden Open Door Tours: docent-led tours of the congregation’s Biblical Botanical Garden the first Wednesday of the month. Free. Noon. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/garden.
WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 6–DEC. 18
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.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.
WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 7, 28
Join JFCS and 10.27 Healing Partnership for an art-based mindfulness program. 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 di erent art mediums, share our personal experiences and reflect on how art can influence us all. Free. 10 a.m. 10.27 Healing Partnership Suite, 3rd floor of the JCC in Squirrel Hill. Membership not required. Registration required. 1027healingpartnership.org/artin-community-3.
Tell us your love story!
In honor of Tu B’Av, the Jewish holiday of love, we want to share our readers’ love stories! Submit a photo and tell us what you love about your partner for a chance to be featured in the Chronicle!
Aug. 16, 2024
Submit your photo and story to newsdesk@ pittsburghjewish chronicle.org and write “Love story” in the subject line. Submissions must be received by Wednesday, Aug. 7 Tu B’Av Issue
WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 7, 28; SEPT. 4, 18
Chabad of Monroeville invites you to spend an hour playing mahjong and other games. Play, shmooze, learn a word of the Torah, say a prayer for Israel and, of course, nosh on some yummy treats. Free. 7 p.m. RSVP is required: SusanEBurgess@gmail. com, or text or call 412-295-1838. 2715 Mosside Blvd. jewishmonroeville.com/mahjong.
THURSDAY, AUG. 8
Join Chabad of the South Hills for family fun bowling. Enjoy two hours of unlimited bowling and pizza. 4 p.m. $18/person; $65 family max. Crafton Ingram Lanes. RSVP by Aug. 8 at chabadsh. com/bowling.
Women are invited to join Chabad of Squirrel Hill to bake butterfly challahs at Loaves of Love 7 p.m. $12. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/lol.
TUESDAY, AUG. 13
Join Tree of Life congregants at the Schenley Park Oval as they meet to enjoy the outdoors, pet dogs and converse with one another. Free. Every other Tuesday, through August. 6:30 p.m. treeoflifepgh.org.
SATURDAY, AUG. 17
Celebrate Tu B’Av, Jewish Valentine’s Day, by wearing traditional white clothes and enjoy a musical Havdalah, a DJ, dancing, bar/bat mitzvah-style games, activities, a chocolate fondue bar, a photo booth and more. Bring or maybe meet your bashert at this Tree of Life young Jewish community and Temple Sinai NextGen event. This event is for adults in their 20s and 30s. Free. 8:30 p.m. forms.gle/ rxjdQPPgvJZyTovm9.
SUNDAY, AUG. 18
Join the Tree of Life Congregation for its annual summer picnic. Food, games and activities.
2 p.m. $10 member/$12 non-member. JCC Family Park, 261 Rosecrest Drive, Monroeville, 15146. Reservation deadline is Aug. 11. treeoflifepgh.org/ congregationalpicnic.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21
Rendezvous in Rodef Shalom’s Biblical Botanical Garden with drinks and hors d’oeuvres for a free live performance with Doug Levine and Cantor Toby Glaser. 6:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org.
Join AgeWell for the Intergenerational Family Dynamics Discussion Group at JCC South Hills the third Wednesday of each month. Led by intergenerational specialist/presenter and educator Audree Schall. The group is geared toward anyone who has children, grandchildren, a spouse, siblings or parents. Whether you have family harmony or strife, these discussions are going to be thought-provoking, with tools to help build strong relationships and family unity. Free. 12:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, AUG. 23
Join Tree of Life Congregation as they celebrate the welcoming of Shabbat. Meet before Shabbat begins to greet one another in the beautiful Rodef Shalom Botanical Gardens for Shabbat on the Rocks. Free. 6 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 12
Join StandWithUs for its inaugural Pittsburgh Community Reception honoring Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler and featuring keynote speaker Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus. 6 p.m. Early bird: $90; VIP: $250. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. standwithus.com/ pittsburgh-event-2024. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Aug. 25 discussion of “House on Endless Waters,” by Emuna Elon. Overview: “Renowned author Yoel Blum reluctantly agrees to visit his birthplace of Amsterdam to promote his books, despite promising his late mother that he would never return to that city. While touring the Jewish Historical Museum with his wife, Yoel stumbles upon footage portraying prewar Dutch Jewry and is astonished to see the youthful face of his beloved mother staring back at him, posing with his father, his older sister … and an infant he doesn’t recognize. This unsettling discovery launches him into a fervent search for the truth, shining a light on Amsterdam’s dark wartime history — the underground networks that hid Jewish children away from danger and those who betrayed their own for the sake of survival. The deeper into the past Yoel digs up, the better he understands his mother’s silence, and the more urgent the question that has unconsciously haunted him for a lifetime — Who am I? — becomes.”
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle
David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Aug. 25, at 1 p.m.
What to do
Buy: “House on Endless Waters.” It is available at some area Barnes and Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting.
Happy reading! PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
Will Israel
go to war in
Lebanon?
Saturday’s attack and what might come next, explained
By Ben Sales | JTA
On Saturday, a conflict that has been heating up for 10 months neared the verge of exploding into all-out war when a suspected Hezbollah missile killed 12 children and teens on a soccer field in Israel.
The attack plunged Israel into mourning and marked a major escalation in what has already been a deadly battle on its northern border. While Israel has signaled that its response will be limited, the sides are edging toward a war that could put vast swaths of Lebanon as well as Israel — including the Israeli airport and its power plants — under rocket fire.
Hezbollah — which has existed for decades and last fought with Israel in 2006 — began firing missiles at Israel’s north following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion, prompting Israeli reprisals. Hundreds of people — mostly combatants — have been killed in Israel and Lebanon, and tens of thousands more have been displaced.
As the fighting has gone on, both Israel and Hezbollah have warned of widespread destruction if the skirmishes become a fullscale war. Now, the chances of such a war are higher than ever.
“These children are our children; they are the children of us all,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the site of the attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. “The State of Israel will not, and cannot, ignore this. Our response will come and it will be severe.”
Here’s what we know about the conflict on Israel’s northern border, and what could happen next.
How did we get here?
Hezbollah and Israel have fought, on and off, for four decades.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist group funded by Iran that the United States, Israel and several European countries have designated as a terror organization. It was founded in the wake of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which targeted the Palestine Liberation Organization there.
Following that war, Israeli forces remained in southern Lebanon, and faced Hezbollah attacks. The group also bombed a U.S. Marines barracks in Lebanon in 1983, killing 241 troops and prompting the withdrawal of American forces from the country.
Israel withdrew unilaterally from Lebanon in 2000, but its clashes with Hezbollah have continued since, erupting once before into war. Hezbollah is sworn to Israel’s destruction, and has also attacked Israeli and Jewish targets abroad — most notably the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, where a 1994 bombing killed 85 people.
Hezbollah also has a political party that plays a major role in Lebanese politics, delivers social services and has created what some call a “state within a state.” Some entities, such as the European Union, consider Hezbollah’s military wing a terror group, but not the political party.
What has Hezbollah done since Oct. 7?
On Oct. 8, shortly after Hamas invaded Israel, Hezbollah began firing missiles and shooting projectiles across Israel’s northern border.
Since then, the terror group has launched thousands of attacks — firing 1,000 missiles in May alone. The attacks have devastated the small Israeli towns on the border and driven tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate under government order. Israeli troops have massed on the Lebanese border.
Dozens of Israeli civilians, and 18 Israeli soldiers, have been killed in the attacks. Israel has responded by bombing Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon and Syria, killing hundreds of the group’s fighters, some of its leaders and dozens of civilians. Tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon have likewise evacuated.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a November speech that the purpose of the attacks was to distract Israeli forces as they fought Hamas, an ideological relative of Hezbollah.
“Every day, we have been targeting Israeli soldiers, tanks, drones and sensors, the eyes and ears of Israel,” Nasrallah said. “Our operations on the border have forced the IDF to divert forces, weapons and equipment from Gaza and the West Bank to the Lebanese front.”
Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that continued attacks could lead to a bombardment of Lebanon.
“If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war, it will by its own volition turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” the Gaza city where Israeli troops were battling, Netanyahu said in an address to troops in December.
What happened on Saturday?
On Saturday evening, a missile fired from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Druze
town of Majdal Shams in the northern tip of the Golan Heights. It killed 12 people, all between the ages of 10 and 20.
Hezbollah denies shooting the rocket but earlier took responsibility for a volley of fire to the same area. According to Israeli and U.S. intelligence sources, the rocket that struck the field was made by Iran and is used only by Hezbollah.
The funerals of most of the victims took place Sunday, sinking Majdal Shams, a town of more than 10,000, into mourning. Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967 and later annexed it, and though many of the Druze in the Golan have retained Syrian citizenship, Israelis have claimed the population as their own and grieved alongside it.
“The terrible and shocking disaster in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the north of Israel is truly heartbreaking,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Saturday. “The State of Israel will firmly defend its citizens and its sovereignty.”
Have Hezbollah and Israel fought before?
The last major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah occurred in 2006, when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. In the ensuing war, more than 100 Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Hezbollah fighters were killed, in addition to dozens of Israeli civilians and more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians.
In Israel, the monthlong war is widely considered, in the words of Haaretz correspondent Amos Harel, a “resounding failure” owing to its high death toll and because Hezbollah remained intact afterward.
In 2011, the Syrian civil war broke out, and Hezbollah forces went to Syria to shore up dictator Bashar al-Assad, an ally. Since then, Israel has bombed countless Hezbollah weapons convoys in Syria and Lebanon, often not taking responsibility.
Who is on Hezbollah’s side?
Hezbollah is often thought of first and foremost as an Iranian proxy. It is funded and trained by Iran and shares its ideological goals and alliances.
Hezbollah is also one of the largest threats Israel has faced alongside Hamas, which is also funded by Iran. Nasrallah framed the current bombing campaign as a show of solidarity with Hamas.
But other threats have also emerged in the wake of Saturday’s attack. Following Israeli threats after the bombing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan floated the prospect of invading Israel — an extraordinary statement from a member of the NATO alliance.
What will Israel do now?
Israeli officials have promised a harsh response to the bombing, and some politicians are agitating for the all-out war that has appeared on the doorstep for months. Avigdor Liberman, a hawkish opposition lawmaker, tweeted regarding Nasrallah, “the time has come for him to pay the price.”
“We are nearing a full war against Hezbollah and will respond to this incident accordingly,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media. “There will be costs to the front, and there will be costs to the home front, but we are at a turning point.”
A recent poll, taken before the Majdal Shams attack, found that 41% of the Israeli public supports a “broader military operation” in Lebanon.
Israel has reportedly begun bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response, but there are indications that its response may be restrained. An anonymous Israeli diplomatic source told Reuters, “The estimation is that the response will not lead to an all-out war.” The source added, “That would not be in our interest at this point.”
p Thousands attend the funeral for children killed in a rocket attack in Majdal Shams, Israel
Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf /Andolu via Getty Images
Headlines
Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, could be Kamala Harris’ VP pick
By Ben Sales | JTA
When Josh Shapiro was sworn in last year on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles, he became the third Jewish governor in Pennsylvania’s history.
Now, the Jewish day school graduate might become the second Jew ever nominated for vice president by a major party.
Shapiro, 51, a Democrat who projects a clean-cut image and has gained a local reputation as a moderate, is reportedly one of two leading contenders on Kamala Harris’ shortlist of potential running mates. The other presumed finalist is Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, whose wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, is Jewish.
If Shapiro is selected, it would be the latest step in a steep political ascent. He has risen from local office to statewide positions where he has gained national attention for investigating abuse in the Catholic Church, his response to Donald Trump’s attempted assassination and more. Throughout that time, he has also stayed involved in his Philadelphia-area Jewish community, where he sends his children to the same Jewish school he attended.
“You’ve heard me quote my scripture before, that no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it, meaning each of us has a responsibility to get off the sidelines, to get in the game and to do our part,” Shapiro said in his 2022 victory speech upon being elected governor, quoting from the Jewish ethical text Pirkei Avot.
Shapiro was involved in politics from a young age, participating in the Soviet Jewry movement by starting a pen pal program with Soviet Jewish teens. He graduated from a school that merged into what is now Perelman Jewish Day School, in addition to what is now the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, a community high school where he met his wife, Lori.
They sent their four children — Sophia, Jonah, Max and Reuben — to the schools, and Shapiro has returned to speak, including in the heat of campaigning. Sophia has also taken an active role supporting her fa ther’s campaign, running Students for Shapiro.
Th e family attends the Conservative Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, Shapiro’s childhood synagogue, which is famous for having a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
He also has a record as a vocal supporter of Israel at a time when Harris has faced criticism from pro-Israel activists. In response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which sparked the ongoing war, he mentioned the “many special moments in Israel” that his family had experienced. And he has taken university leadership in his state to task for threats to Jewish students on their campuses. He also called out an anti-Israel protest that targeted a kosher Philadelphia restaurant, Goldie.
“What they did was blatant antisemitism,” he said at the time. “They protested in
restaurants, simply because it’s owned by a Jewish person. That is the kind of antisemitic tropes that we saw in 1930s Germany.”
Shapiro was first elected to state legislature in 2004, where he gained a bipartisan image by helping install a moderate Republican as speaker of a divided chamber. He was
Now that his name is being floated for the Democratic ticket, fears of antisemitism have resurfaced. Last week CNN anchor John King said, “He’s a first-term governor, he’s Jewish, there could be some risks in putting him on the ticket.”
The remark sparked backlash, but it isn’t
Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate, tweeted. “Grateful to @JoshShapiroPA for his strength and leadership following the tragedy in Butler on Saturday.”
Shapiro has also raised eyebrows for another position related to his own personal experience: He supported a Republican
Shapiro centered his Jewishness in the campaign, running an ad highlighting his family’s Shabbat observance.
elected state attorney general in 2016, beating a Republican the same year Hillary Clinton lost the state (and the election) to Donald Trump.
In 2018, Shapiro gained global prominence for publishing an 18-month investigation that accused hundreds of Catholic priests of sexual abuse and charged the church with a “systematic cover-up.” He was back in the headlines two years later for his efforts to ensure an accurate vote count in the 2020 election despite efforts by Trump, the incumbent, to stymie the tally. That year, he won his reelection, and Trump lost.
When he ran for governor in 2022, Shapiro was up against Republican Doug Mastriano, who allied with the antisemitic founder of the far-right social network Gab and mocked Shapiro’s Jewish day school. Shapiro also centered his Jewishness in the campaign, running an ad highlighting his family’s Shabbat observance. At his inauguration, one of the Bibles he used in the oath of office came from the site of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
the first time journalists have taken note of the possible pushback against a Jewish candidate. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate on the Democratic ticket in 2000, wrote in a 2003 book that he contended with the same concerns — and brushed them off.
“I wanted to be who I am, and prayer and faith are at the center of my life and of my family’s life,” wrote Lieberman, who was religiously observant and who died this year. “The same is true of many Americans, and I have never understood why some people feel that when you go into public life you lose the freedom to talk about your faith.”
Shapiro’s moderate bent has also recently drawn praise and criticism. After the attempted assassination of Trump earlier this month in his state, Shapiro won plaudits from Republicans and Democrats for his response, including calling the family of the man who was killed, Corey Comperatore, and praising him publicly as a “hero.”
“This has been a tough few days for our commonwealth,” Dave McCormick, the
proposal to fund $100 million in vouchers for private school parents, something many Democrats opposed. Shapiro withdrew his support following backlash from his own party, and the issue has come up again as his name entered the headlines this week.
“ The idea that Dems are vetting PA governor Josh Shapiro is evidence of how out of touch the party is with the historical moment,” former journalist Heidi Moore tweeted. “For Kamala to pick a throwback Boomer-style West Wing liberal neocon like Shapiro who is cold, rigid and unlikeable will hurt her image — and her votes — considerably.”
But Shapiro’s moderate image has also given him higher approval ratings in his state than Biden. And he’s got a fan club in his Jewish community back home.
“I would love to see him as the first Jewish president of the United States,” Sharon Levin, who taught Shapiro in high school before becoming head of school, told JTA in 2018. “I and everyone else here would sign onto his campaign.” PJC
p Josh Shapiro gives a victory speech to supporters on election night at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks on Nov. 8, 2022.
Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images
Headlines
Thousands of campus protesters arrested, but many charges dropped
Police arrested more than 3,100 protesters during the wave of anti-Israel encampments this spring, but many of the charges have since been dropped, The New York Times reported, according to JNS.org.
Mass arrests began in April at Columbia University when police arrested more than 100 on April 18. A few thousand more were subsequently arrested at campuses around the country. Most were hit with charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace.
While some college administrators chose to negotiate with the demonstrators, promising scholarships to Gazans and other inducements, others hoped to quickly restore calm by calling in the police.
Police arrested demonstrators at more than 70 schools in at least 30 states, according to the Times.
“But in the months since, many of the charges have been dropped, even as some students are facing additional consequences, like being barred from their campuses or having their diplomas withheld,” the paper said.
Dozens of Israelis flock to hospitals amid ‘brain-eating amoeba’ scare
Hospitals in northern Israel reported the arrival of dozens of patients on July 25 after the country’s Health Ministry ordered the immediate closure of a water park following two recent cases of infection by a rare amoeba,
JNS.org reported.
Northern medical centers reported that “more than 70 individuals who visited Gai Beach, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, have sought medical attention at northern hospitals. All those examined were found to be healthy and without symptoms and were subsequently discharged,” according to Israel Hayom.
David Ratner, spokesman for Rambam Hospital in Haifa, said there was “a lot of panic,” with 10 children and 10 adults checking in and being released. “Other northern hospitals received even more,” he added.
A 10-year-old Israeli was hospitalized with encephalitis caused by Naegleria fowleri, aka the “brain-eating amoeba.” The boy is sedated and on a respirator at Ziv Medical Center in Safed.
He was the second patient diagnosed with encephalitis as a result of fowleri infection after staying at the water park. The amoeba was detected in a 26-year-old man who died in July. The death was the second case of fowleri infection ever reported in Israel.
Mural of keffiyeh-clad Anne Frank displayed in Norway
A controversial mural depicting Anne Frank wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh has appeared in Bergen, Norway, igniting a fierce debate about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, JNS.org reported.
The work, created by anonymous street artist Töddel, draws parallels between Holocaust victims and Palestinian civilians while criticizing Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.
The piece, titled “Death of the Innocent,” is a
Today in Israeli History
Aug. 5, 1995 — Composer
Aug. 2, 1968 — Oil flows from Eilat to Haifa
Oil first reaches Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea from Eilat on the Red Sea through a land pipeline. The overland connection between Israel’s largest ports provides an alternative to the Suez Canal, closed to Israeli shipping.
Aug. 3, 1981 — Archaeologists, Haredim battle in City of David
An excavation on the eastern side of Jerusalem’s City of David is suspended amid attacks by Haredi Jews, most of them from the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta. The site reportedly includes a Jewish cemetery.
Aug. 4, 1920 — Kaplan plants roots of Reconstructionism
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, a Jewish Theological Seminary professor, publishes “A Program for the Reconstruction of Judaism” in the Menorah Journal. He emphasizes Zionism as a key component for American Judaism.
Menachem Avidom dies Composer Menachem Avidom dies at 87. A Russian native, he became an innovator in fusing Middle Eastern and European musical theories, beginning in 1944, and thus paved the way for Mizrahi musicians.
Aug. 6, 1923 — 13th Zionist Congress convenes Meeting in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, the 13th Zionist Congress opens to discuss details about the British Mandate for Palestine and the Palestine Z ionist Executive, which guides Jewish immigration and settlement.
commentary on the Israeli state’s “genocide” of thousands of Palestinian children and women, according to a press release the artist sent to the TV 2 network.
“The work is also a comment on Israeli public figures’ attempts to turn all calls for humanitarianism into antisemitism. It’s too shameful, and they cannot get away with it even though we’re living in 2024,” according to the statement.
Earlier this month, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejected a request from his Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide for an official visit to Israel. The decision came in the wake of Oslo’s controversial recognition of a Palestinian state and its stance on the Gaza War.
Survey suggests 78% of European Jewish leaders feel less safe than 10 months ago
Nearly eight in 10 European Jewish leaders feel less safe than they did before Oct. 7 and named antisemitism as the top threat to Jewish life on the continent, according to a new survey from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JNS.org reported.
The JDC’s Sixth Survey of European Jewish Community Leaders and Professionals drew on data from 879 people — including nonprofit executives and board members, rabbis, school administrators, donors, young activists and media company owners — who speak 10 languages across 32 countries. The survey was conducted in March and April.
Nearly the same number said that it felt less safe (78%) than before Oct. 7 and that Jew hatred is the biggest threat to the community (79%).
Sizable minorities also expressed fears of appearing visibly Jewish, with 32% saying it was less likely to wear a Jewish necklace or T-shirt and 25% saying it was less likely to wear a kippah.
Respondents also reported growing distance (38%) in relationships with non-Jewish friends, including 46% of those under 40 reporting diminished relationships.
Google talks to buy Israeli firm Wiz collapse
Talks between Google and Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz over a possible $23 billion acquisition have fallen apart, according to The Wall Street Journal, JNS.org reported.
If a deal had been reached, it would have represented Google parent company Alphabet’s biggest-ever acquisition (scorching the previous record of $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2012).
In an email to employees on July 22, Wiz Chief Executive Assaf Rappaport said the company is now planning an initial public offering.
“Wizards, I know the last week has been intense, with the buzz about a potential acquisition,” he wrote. “While we are flattered by offers we have received, we have chosen to continue on our path to building Wiz.”
Rappaport said Wiz intends to reach $1 billion in annual recurring revenue ahead of the IPO. Its annual recurring revenue is half that, the Journal reported. PJC
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
Aug. 7, 1970 — War of Attrition ends
A cease-fire ends the War of Attrition, in which Egypt shelled Israel’s positions along the Suez Canal and the countries engaged in aerial battles and commando raids. The fighting ramped up in March 1969.
Aug. 8, 1924 — Cinema advocate
Lia Van Leer is born
Lia Van Leer, a pioneer in Israeli film appreciation and creation, is born in Beltsy, Romania (now Moldova). She and husband Wim Van Leer create the Israel Film Archive, and she starts the Jerusalem Film Festival. PJC
p Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan learns with students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1970.
Courtesy of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
p The 13th Zionist Congress meets in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, in 1923.
Headlines
Graffiti:
Continued from page 1
said Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld, director of Chabad Young Professionals. He recalled a recent text he received.
“They said to me, ‘Rabbi, what’s next? Is it going to be Kristallnacht?’” referencing the 1938 pogrom carried out in Germany by the Nazi party.
Rosenfeld said that the biggest difference between 1938 and now is evidenced by the politicians and police standing behind him “to make sure we can continue to be loud and proud in our Judaism.”
Asked if there was any proof that the graffiti painted at Chabad was the work of an anti-Zionist group like Jewish Voice for Peace, Federation’s Community Relations Council Director Laura Cherner said that since the actor has not yet been identified, there was no way to make any connection with particular groups or individuals.
In a statement issued immediately following the news conference, the Federation called the attack “a targeted threat to our Jewish community,” and said the vandalism was “particularly despicable.”
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, whose district includes Squirrel Hill, did not attend the news conference but posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying vandalizing synagogues and places of worship like Chabad “is wrong.”
“These sanctuaries should be a refuge for those looking for community and spiritual healing. They must be respected and protected,” she wrote.
L ee did not label the vandalism antisemitic nor did she reference the graffiti at the Federation.
Lee’s Republican opponent in the race for Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district seat, James Hayes, said in an email to the Chronicle that “you cannot wind a clock and object when it rings.”
Netanyahu:
“Virulently anti-Israel protests are tolerated, even encouraged by elected public officials, such as the current member of Congress Summer Lee,” Hayes wrote. “Along with others on the far-left ‘squad’ too many elected leaders characterize Israel’s very existence as something to be ‘corrected.’ Hence, the ugly vandalism and efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro condemned the antisemitic vandalism on social media: “They should not need to wake up to antisemitic graffiti in their neighborhood. Vandalism of any type of house of worship has no home in our Commonwealth — and we must all continue to call it out and speak with moral clarity.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio wrote on X: “I condemn this vandalism and hope our community will continue to denounce antisemitism and hate in all its forms.”
State Rep. Dan Frankel also posted on X, calling the vandalism an attack on “the values
Continued from page 1
absence, he said that was overshadowed by the antics of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who wore a keffiyeh and held a sign reading “War Criminal” on one side and “Guilty of Genocide” on the other, which she brandished while remaining seated as others stood and applauded the prime minister’s speech.
Others in the chamber also expressed disapproval of Netanyahu, Hayes said, though more subtlety than Tlaib.
“In the past, support of Israel was a strongly bipartisan policy plank,” he said. “I was surprised to see the Republican side of the room, and a lot of senators who were very supportive, standing and applauding — I lost count — during 35 standing ovations. Unfortunately, on the Democrat side, there seemed to be a lot of quiet resistance. They sat quietly in their seats and didn’t show support.”
Hayes said he believes that Israel is the United States’ strongest ally in the Middle East and perhaps the world. Netanyahu, he said, is also a strong ally of America. The congressional hopeful said he appreciated the prime minister speaking of
the bond between the countries during his speech. He also appreciated Netanyahu’s label for those supporting Hamas: “Useful idiots.”
Hayes said protesters released maggots at the Watergate Hotel where the prime minister was staying and took down and burned the American flag, replacing it with the Palestinian flag.
Deputy Consul General of Israel in New York Tsach Saar said that protesters had “an absolute right” to their opinion, but added that the protesters reflected the threat on American society coming from Iran and Hamas.
As for Tlaib, Saar said America and Israel are better served by dialogue than antics.
“But, in the end, if this is what she thinks she should do, then she’s a Congress member and she should,” he said.
Saar called Netanyahu’s speech “important,” saying it emphasized the goals of the war that Israel shares with America, including the release of the hostages, dismantling Hamas’ military and governance capabilities in Gaza and what he called the “largest threat” shared by the two countries: Iran.
“Not just the nuclear capabilities but the protests here in the United States which weaken the American resilience and cause polarization and destabilization,” he said.
of tolerance, respect and community we as Pittsburghers hold dear. Hate has no place in Pittsburgh or anywhere else and we must stand together to denounce such acts.”
Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler attended the news conference and visited both Chabad and the Federation when she heard of the vandalism.
“It was done with the intent to intimidate and create fear among Jews,” she said. “It seems very obvious to me what the goal was by doing that and it’s just so profoundly disappointing.”
Heisler was joined at the news conference and at Chabad by community activist David Knoll, who is helping Chabad with security. He called the vandalism “a significant uptick” in antisemitic activity.
“For the first time [since Oct. 7], Jewish institutions have been targeted, which were previously off limits,” Knoll said.
Also attending the news conference were Federation Board Chair Jan Levinson,
A war in the Middle East, Saar said, is not only a war in the region; rather, it’s a direct threat against America’s national security and its economic interests.
That message he said, was delivered to a bipartisan Congress in which Israel sees both parties as partners.
That spirit of bipartisanship was evidenced by statements released by Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey and his political opponent, Republican Dave McCormick.
Casey said it is critical that the world sees the United States continue to stand with Israel during its war against a terror group.
“I remain committed to standing with Israel and its right to protect itself while we also work to bring the hostages home and provide much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza as quickly as possible,” Casey said in a statement to the Chronicle.
McCormick drew a contrast between Netanyahu speaking before Congress about the two nations’ shared values, and what he called “terrorist sympathizers” who burned American flags.
“Disgraceful displays of antisemitism must be condemned,” he said, “and the U.S. must continue to support Israel in their fight to eradicate Hamas and bring all the hostages home.”
He noted that both Vice President Kamala
R abbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, state Rep. Abigail Salisbury and Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Barb Warwick.
A joint statement issued late Monday and signed by Gainey and City Council members Warwick, Erika Strassburger, R. Daniel Lavelle, Bobby Wilson, Theresa Kail-Smith, Bob Charland, Anthony Coghill, Deborah Gross, Khari Mosley, as well as Heisler, read: “Targeting Pittsburgh’s Jewish residents — damaging property with the intent to make people feel unsafe in their neighborhoods and places of work and worship — is a deplorable act of anti-Semitism and political violence.
“To those who would claim this vandalism is a legitimate form of protest, make no mistake: These actions have zero impact on the situation in Israel. They do nothing to bring Israeli hostages home, to ease the suffering of Palestinians, or to halt further escalation of that growing global conflict. No one can claim to support peace and then commit acts that are intended to harass, frighten, and ostracize an entire community.”
The vandalism has the community on edge, but Altein said that won’t deter Chabad of Squirrel Hill from continuing its mission.
“They got the outside of the building,” he said. “Inside it’s just going to get bigger and better.”
In response to the attack, Chabad of Squirrel Hill will host a pre-Shabbat gathering, “Fight with Light,” on Friday, Aug. 2 at 5 p.m.
Gainey’s press secretary, Maria Montaño, said Pittsburgh public works was dispatched to remove the graffiti.
Pittsburgh police will increase patrols in the neighborhood, Brokos said. She urged anyone who witnesses antisemitic incidents to call 911 and contact the Federation at jewishpgh.org/form/incident-report. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org .
Harris and Lee, whom he called “a known antisemite,” boycotted the speech.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said that “democratically elected leaders should always be welcomed in Congress.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu provided vivid reminders of the horrific day of Oct. 7 and delivered an important message to Congress and the American people: We must stand together until the threat of Hamas has been neutralized,” Fetterman said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Closer to home, Allegheny County Council member Dan Grzybek chose to highlight Tlaib’s protest on X (formerly Twitter), calling her a “brave woman” willing to confront “the man responsible for perpetrating a genocide against your people as your fellow members of Congress disgustingly stand and applaud.”
Earlier this year, Grzybek co-sponsored a motion introduced by Councilwoman Bethany Hallam calling for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas. It was defeated by a large margin.
While in the States, Netanyahu also met privately with President Joe Biden and Harris, as well as former President Donald Trump. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Security Director Shawn Brokos discusses graffiti painted at Chabad of Squirrel Hill and Federation. Photo by David Rullo
Headlines
Continued from page 7
Does Hezbollah want war?
Hezbollah’s assessment appears to be similar. While the group has bombed Israel on a near-daily basis for close to a year, it is perceived to want a limited conflict and has said it would abide by an Israeli ceasefire with Hamas.
“Nasrallah has stressed in public statements that Hezbollah does not plan a broader war,” read a March brief by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Hezbollah cares about its constituents and recognizes that a repeat of the 2006 war, let alone something much worse, would be a disaster for these supporters,” the brief said. “In recent years, Lebanon’s economy has plummeted, and Hezbollah does not want to take the blame for a war that would further devastate the country.”
But the group has also begun moving some of its missiles in preparation for a war with Israel, according to Haaretz.
What would a war in the north look like — and how would it affect the war in Gaza?
If war does break out, it would almost certainly not be limited to Israel’s north. Israel would likely make good on its vows to bombard Lebanon, as it has done in two previous wars. A considerable portion
That would mean virtually no place in Israel would be a safe haven, and critical infrastructure would be at risk. Some Israelis have begun preparing for that scenario, clearing out safe rooms and stockpiling supplies. The largest hospital in Israel’s northern port city of Haifa has an extensive underground ward that can be used as
Israel withdrew unilaterally from Lebanon in 2000, but its clashes with Hezbollah have continued since, erupting once before into war.
of the Israeli army is already on the northern border.
Hezbollah is a much bigger force than Hamas, with more than 30,000 soldiers and an estimated 150,000 missiles. It has often boasted of being able to hit urban centers throughout Israel, including the country’s crowded central district.
a shelter and to keep the hospital running in case of war.
A broader war in Lebanon would also mean a shift of focus, to some extent, from Israel’s war in Gaza. Ceasefire negotiations in that war are ongoing, and an Israeli operation in Lebanon would almost certainly complicate those prospects.
What are U.S. officials saying?
The White House also blamed Saturday’s attack on Hezbollah and expressed support for Israel but said it was working to de-escalate tensions on the border, referred to as the Blue Line. Those efforts to avoid war have reportedly intensified since the attack.
“Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah,” National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “The United States is also working on a diplomatic solution along the Blue Line that will end all attacks once and for all, and allow citizens on both sides of the border to safely return to their homes.”
An aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, likewise said, “Israel continues to face severe threats to its security, and the vice president’s support for Israel’s security is ironclad.”
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, condemned “the evil attack on Israel that took place today,” and blamed the Biden administration for it. PJC
Those viral images of Israeli Olympians advocating to ‘Bring them home’ are not actually from the Olympics
By Jacob Gurvis | JTA
Sharing what he said was a video of Israel’s national gymnastics team performing a “Bring Them Home”themed routine at the Paris Olympics, former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman had one piece of advice to viewers: “Watch until the end and have some tissues handy.”
The video shows a group of gymnasts performing a routine featuring Israeli flags, a large yellow ribbon and signs reading “Bring them home now” — all set to a song that was composed for a concert to raise awareness for the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. Friedman billed the video as showing “Israel’s Artistic Gymnastics team performing at the Paris Olympics.”
Friedman’s tweet, which he shared with his 59,000 followers, has been seen 630,000 times and shared more than 2,000 times, according to X, the network formerly known as Twitter. It’s also been shared widely on Instagram, the visual social network that does not make public information about the reach of posts.
But while the video is no doubt evocative, it is not Israel’s gymnastics team, nor is it from the Olympics. According to the Israel Gymnastics Federation, the video shows a performance from an acrobatics club in Mazkeret Batya, Israel.
Israel only has two artistic gymnasts at the Paris Olympics; its rhythmic gymnastics team, which competes Aug. 9, only has five members, while the video features dozens of gymnasts.
Friedman did not respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency inquiry about how he came to share the video with the description he did. But the post offers the latest example of how misinformation about Israel, an ongoing issue during the Gaza war, is
affecting even seemingly lighthearted posts connected to the Olympics.
Another widely shared visual ostensibly from the Olympics has been an image depicting Israeli swimmers arranged to spell out “Bring them home now!” with their bodies. According to one viral caption, the picture is of the Israeli team during a practice swim.
But the photo appears to show 58 swimmers — considerably more than Israel sent to the Olympics. And a closer look reveals that some of the swimmers repeat as the letters do.
In fact, the image is actually nearly as old as the hostage crisis, after being created and shared by artist Adam Spiegel on Instagram on Nov. 19. A note attached to some of its shares on X also suggests that the image may be digitally altered or made by artificial intelligence. Spiegel did not respond to a request for comment.
The picture has been used to amplify another viral claim that departs from the truth: that the Israeli national team has been uniquely prohibited from demonstrating during the Olympics on behalf of their country.
“The Israeli Olympic team is NOT permitted to proudly wear their #BringThemHome pins during the #2024Olympics,” the Instagram account JewsofNY told its 162,000 followers, in one representative post. “But that didn’t stop Israel’s Olympic swimming team from forming these important words together with the & symbols during their practice in Israel.”
The claim that the Olympic committee “banned” Israel’s delegation from wearing pins is misleading. The International Olympic Committee’s official charter lays out policies concerning political expression from all athletes; there is no specific policy for Israel.
Rule 40 of the Olympic charter says that “all competitors, team officials and other team personnel at the Olympic Games shall enjoy freedom of expression.” But later in the charter, it clarifies, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
The IOC has clarified that athletes are entitled to share their views during interviews or other media appearances, but that
such expressions are prohibited during official ceremonies, competitions and in the Olympic Village.
The charter also says athletes or teams that break those rules or subject to temporary or permanent disqualification, including forfeiting any medals.
While some Jews and pro-Israel voices see the yellow ribbons that have proliferated since Oct. 7 as politically neutral, the ribbons have been treated as partisan statements on the world stage, including when a handful of celebrities have worn them at international awards ceremonies.
On Sunday, another piece of misinformation began spreading: about Karina Pritika, who was murdered on Oct. 7. “Our fellow X user, and Israeli rhythmic gymnast Karina Pritika, might have been competing at the Paris Olympics right now, but she was executed by a monster for being a Jew while pleading for her life on her knees after watching him murder her best friend,” an Israeli named Saul Sadka tweeted alongside video from Oct. 7.
In fact, although Pritika had represented Israel in international competitions as a teen, she had retired well before Oct. 7, when she was one of hundreds of young people slaughtered at the Nova music festival. Sadka later acknowledged that Pritika had retired but said he would leave the tweet online — along with anti-Israel responses, some vicious, that his post had elicited.
As the posts have spread across social media, some Jewish users have called out the proliferation of misinformation — though, as tends to be the case online, their responses are being seen far less than the misleading posts.
“Guys. Memes are fun. Misinformation isn’t,” tweeted rabbi and activist Shais Rishon, who goes by the moniker MaNishtana online. “Ppl keep sharing this but the image has absolutely zero connection to the Olympics.” PJC
— WORLD —
p Two widely shared visuals of Israeli athletes incorrectly placed them in the context of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Screenshots from social media via JTA
A call for leadership in the face of rising antisemitism
Guest Columnist
Andrea Beth Goldschmidt
As a Jewish resident of Squirrel Hill and a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, I have watched with shock and trepidation over the past several months as anti-Israel agitators have invaded my neighborhood and communities.
Since Oct. 7, Jewish communities across the United States and other “Westernized” countries have faced a rising tide of antisemitism reflected in hateful and threatening speech, calls for the dismantling of Jewish community spaces and organizations, and even physical aggression toward community members and law enforcement officers.
In Pittsburgh, we have witnessed vandalism and destruction of property (expressed most recently in the defacement of the Chabad of Squirrel Hill building, a sacred house of worship and hub of Jewish life in Squirrel Hill, featuring a red inverted triangle — a symbol used by Hamas to mark Israeli military targets), several illegal encampments on Pitt’s campus, attempts to intimidate a local business that sells Israeli products and thinly veiled “anti-Zionist” propaganda targeting Jews and Israelis based on nothing more than those identities. It is no wonder that I and many other
community members are feeling on edge.
We are told over and over that Pittsburgh is “stronger than hate,” that the community won’t tolerate antisemitism and that we must be proactive in countering hateful tropes that could
in April in which protesters were permitted to engage in a dayslong takeover of a public park, free of charge, after a post-hoc waiver of the permit application fee, in clear violation of a city ordinance.
While some of our elected officials have stood up loudly and forcefully to condemn discrimination against the Jewish community — notably, almost all of them Jews themselves —most have issued weak, conciliatory statements and many have actively encouraged the agitators.
lead to a repeat of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting — yet many of our public officials refuse to call these acts antisemitism, implying that we should wait forebodingly until what we all know are harbingers of violence culminate in actual violence.
I have paid careful attention to the escalation in tactics used by the “protesters” over the preceding months, and this most recent round of vandalism is the natural consequence of a lukewarm (at best) response from our elected officials. The city set a dangerous precedent during the first illegal anti-Israel encampment in Schenley Plaza
Whether the actors in the more recent acts of vandalism, or the second round of illegal encampments in June, were the same individuals who camped on Schenley Plaza a few months earlier, I am certain they were emboldened and empowered by what they saw: a clear signal that certain community members may freely impinge upon and cause destruction to public spaces with no regard for the law (not only overlooked by, but actively encouraged by the city, including local elected officials), choose when they are ready to leave and face no consequences whatsoever.
I am a liberal Democrat who firmly believes
in and values free speech. However, free speech needs to be exercised within the bounds of the law. It is the local government’s job to enforce that expectation, and our local government has repeatedly failed.
As a taxpayer, I rely on the city to keep my neighborhood safe, but as a Jewish community member, I don’t feel any safer knowing that individuals who would vandalize property, call for violence and forcefully take over shared community spaces continue to be at large and face no consequences for their lawlessness.
While some of our elected officials have stood up loudly and forcefully to condemn discrimination against the Jewish community — notably, almost all of them Jews themselves —most have issued weak, conciliatory statements and many have actively encouraged the agitators. This sends the message that we are on our own.
I urge my fellow Jews, and all Jewish allies, to demand from our elected officials the same treatment we would expect for any other group facing intimidation and bigotry — that our concerns are taken seriously; that there is no preferential treatment for those who break the law, no matter what their political views may be; and that the city leadership ensures the protection of all of its citizens, not just those whose messages may conveniently align with its own political agenda. PJC
Andrea Beth Goldschmidt is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
My stepfather Joe Lieberman set one path as a Jew in politics. Will his many successors follow it?
My family and I gathered this week at a memorial service for my stepfather, Sen. Joe Lieberman, who passed away earlier this year. Though we knew him as a loving parent, grandparent and husband, he was perhaps best known as the first Jewish candidate on a national ticket, a distinction he earned when selected by then Vice President Al Gore as a running mate in the 2000 election.
group, the doors of opportunity open wider for every single American.” I think he loved this framing because it matched how he saw his Jewishness: as a lever and fulcrum for moving the world to a better place. Jewishness was something very personal for him, yes, but it wasn’t private, and it wasn’t parochial. While he wore his Jewish practice with deep humility, he did so proudly and publicly, and he always believed that his faith connected him to others more than it separated him out.
substantive commitment that you can’t miss, even as it is also more narrow and political. This sort of Jewishness also often leads Jews to turn on their own — against those who didn’t get the partisan memo and who are, in the eyes of the beholder, misrepresenting and distorting our faith.
Twenty-four years later, we may have another Jewish candidate for vice president if Gov. Josh Shapiro is tapped. Other prominent candidates have Jewish spouses — including Vice President Kamala Harris, now the leading Democratic presidential contender, whose husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish; and Mark Kelly, reportedly also on Harris’ shortlist, whose wife is the Jewish former congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Of course we all recall, too, that Donald Trump’s daughter and her family are Jewish.
The presence of so many Jews on the national stage is naturally reigniting questions about the role of Jewish identity in politics that my stepfather answered loudly, in his own way.
My stepfather frequently described his ceiling-shattering moment in words offered to him at the time by Rev. Jesse Jackson: “Remember that, in America, when a barrier falls for one
Jewishness in the public eye can take different forms. One type is virtually invisible, sometimes by design. Indeed, back in 2000, many Jews — whether out of fear or a different conception of the role of religion in the public square — wished my stepfather had gone this route. The kind of Jewishness that is in the “Personal Life” section of your Wikipedia page, accessible to the researcher but essentially unknown to the political observer. This is Jewishness by origin, by ethnicity, in biography, a private confession. It otherwise gets in the way of a dream of a more neutral, less religious society that treats all equally, regardless of our particular origin stories.
Another type of Jewishness is, in a way, partisan. It seeks out specific allies with one part of the political spectrum — sometimes the part imagined to be best for “Jewish interests” or for the pursuit of a more universal justice or some combination of the two. This type of Jewishness seeks to align itself with, to weld itself to, movements on one side of American political divides. This sort of Jewishness is highly visible, a deep
My stepfather walked a third path. He saw himself as part of a “group,” his beloved Jewish people, whose destiny in the arc of history fueled his energy and focus. He manifested his public observance of Shabbat to an audience broader than that of perhaps any Jew in history. There was nothing invisible about it.
But his Judaism was also never partisan, and not just in the political sense. He saw his own destiny, as an American, to leverage his Judaism to accomplish things for others, for the broader world in which he lived, for the country he so deeply loved and to which he gave a lifetime of service. Nothing less than that would do — did Jews not bear witness to and serve the God of the world, about whom they say three times a day: “God loves all and has compassion on all God’s creatures?”
More than two decades, later, Jews surely feel more vulnerable than they did back in 2000. The horrific events of Oct. 7, rising antisemitism at home and abroad, political instability — these could beckon Jews, and perhaps Jewish candidates and their family members, in the public sphere to invisible or partisan forms of Jewishness.
Joe Lieberman would have beckoned us to something different. Archimedes, when
musing on the laws of physics, is said to have remarked: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” My stepfather would have asked us to consider: What if Judaism were that lever and that fulcrum? What if we are the ones uniquely positioned to move the world through a deeper embrace of who we are?
Jews — authentic bearers and owners of a Scripture viewed as sacred and foundational to an overwhelming majority of Americans and by billions of people worldwide. Jews — dogged political survivors, suspicious of untrammeled state power that threatens to slide into tyranny, able to connect profoundly with the notion of a birthright of freedom that should belong to all. Jews — a minority, often persecuted, able to understand the plight of the mistreated, the marginalized, the “strangers” in all the Egypts of history and to fight for them as an extension of our own self-preservation. Jews — exemplary beneficiaries of American opportunity, coming as immigrants and outsiders and ascending ladders of achievement and prosperity, poised to share a gospel of what America ought to be for everyone: a place where those of humble origin can shape the destiny of their society. What type of Jewishness will be on display this election season? Where is Jewishness in America headed in the coming years? I hope it will be one that will live up to my stepfather’s example and make him proud. PJC
Rabbi Ethan Tucker is president and rosh yeshiva at Hadar. This article first appeared on JTA.
Guest Columnist
Rabbi Ethan Tucker
Opinion
Chronicle poll results: Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Should Kamala Harris be the Democratic presidential nominee?” Of the 448 people who responded, 72% said yes; 23% said no; and 5% said they weren’t sure. Comments were submitted by 130 people. A few follow.
Biden stepping down was the correct choice. While Kamala isn’t the ideal candidate, there aren’t others who are thrust into the spotlight in order to combat Trump.
The whole process of Biden dropping out and being instantly replaced by Harris feels so undemocratic. Why didn’t the DNC do this before the primary season? There’s a reason we have primaries. Does not instill a lot of confidence.
We don’t know much about her as yet ... makes it a tougher choice.
Just because she’s the current VP doesn’t mean the Dems should default to her. Treat this election as if it’s a brand new ballgame if you want any chance to beat Trump.
I have significant concerns about whether she will be there for Israel when the chips are down.
Our president can and should be a Zionist
Dan Perry is living in an alternate reality. His opinion column in the July 26 edition of the Chronicle, “Joe Biden was a remarkable president for Israel — and very likely the last of his kind,” depicted an alarmingly dystopic version of our country. Unbeknown to many of us, the United States is apparently a one-party political system in which the presidency is passed from one Democrat president to the next Democrat president.
To wit, Mr. Perry’s article presumes rather matter-of-factly that Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States. After all, in his dystopic world, Donald Trump (or any other Republican for that matter) must not be allowed to be president. The dystopia only worsens when Mr. Perry reluctantly acknowledges that Kamala Harris is not a Zionist and concludes with the lamentation that our president (by default a Democrat) may never be a Zionist again.
Not to fear, however, because Kamala Harris and the ascendant Democrat progressive class to which she belongs are not radical in any way, shape or form. Quite to the contrary. She and any other progressive Democrat presidents that follow her are pragmatists who understand that pandering to the pro-Israel will of the American people is only done out of expediency regardless of any personal disdain they hold for Jews and Israel.
And therein lies the horror of Mr. Perry’s dystopic worldview. Members of the controlling party in a one-party system maintain their power by fiat and have no use for principles. They say one thing and do another without regard for the predominant pro-Israel will of the American people.
Joe Biden has modeled this behavior already by claiming to love Israel while putting the squeeze on the Jewish state to accept a reordering of the geopolitical balance of power in the Middle East to the detriment of Israel’s near-term security and long-term viability. And when Kamala Harris becomes our next president as ordained in Mr. Perry’s dystopic world, the ethos of supporting Israel unconditionally based on Zionist ideals will be forever replaced by the feckless notion that Israel has a right to defend herself, but only within the context of the impact that defense has on the suffering of the Palestinian people. If you don’t believe me, just watch the statement Kamala Harris gave after meeting with Netanyahu last week.
That, my friends, is not a world I wish to live in, and neither should you. Instead, we must reject Mr. Perry’s dystopian worldview that Americans (especially Jewish Americans) have only one choice for president — a Democrat. We do not live in a one-party system, and we are not obligated to vote for a candidate who is not a Zionist and who has demonstrated her willingness to shamelessly pander to antisemitic anti-Zionists.
She is very qualified, and every day she’s showing why she is the right choice.
I wish there were a better choice.
I wasn’t sure at first, but I am totally behind her now. Trump is a danger to our country. I will vote for any Democratic candidate at this point.
Hopefully she can energize a lot of women, minorities and disaffected voters and get them to the polls. Another four years of Trump is unimaginably horrible. No matter what Harris’ shortcomings might be, she couldn’t possibly be a worse president than Trump.
Joe Biden has been an excellent legislator and president but, at 81, we need someone like Kamala Harris, who is younger and very experienced in the political world with an excellent skill set as a former prosecutor, state attorney general, senator and U.S. V.P. Watch out Donald Trump!
I could not decide between Biden and Trump, but now that it’s Harris, the choice is easy: I’m voting Trump. Harris would be dreadful for Israel and for Jews.
I feel sadness for Joe Biden, as I think he is a great president and statesman, but I am totally psyched for Kamala’s campaign. I plan to volunteer and have already ordered a sign for my yard!
I wasn’t happy about what she said lately about Israel, but I agree with her on just about everything else. It’s important to look at the big picture and not focus on one thing, no matter how important to me. I think she will be a great candidate, and we need somebody strong for the difficult fight ahead. PJC
—Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: Would Josh Shapiro be a good choice as Kamala Harris’ running mate? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
We have a choice to vote in a manner that is consistent with the belief that our president can and should be a Zionist. What choice will you make?
Yosef Hashimi Squirrel Hill
Israel depends on the service of its soldiers
Every year, Jews celebrate Chanukah by eating latkes and jelly donuts, a strange but delicious way of remembering the miracle of a small amount of oil burning for eight days. The oil was used to cleanse the Temple after the defeat of the Greeks. It’s safe to assume by the fact of this religious ritual that all the Jews who fought the Greeks were observant, the Haredim of their day. Imagine if those Jews said, “I can’t join the army, I’m dedicated to my studies.” If that happened, we wouldn’t be celebrating with jelly donuts. The Greeks would have won. Josh Feldman points out that Haredim and others endanger Israel by avoiding serving in the army (“Haredim aren’t Israel’s only draft dodgers,” July 26). I served in the IDF with Haredim. We were short on manpower. The Haredim played an important part in our mission (and still had plenty of time for prayers and study). Serving in the IDF is hard and often dangerous but the state of Israel wouldn’t exist if not for its soldiers who fought for it over past generations.
Mitchell Nyer Pittsburgh
Headine about Haredi misses the mark
The headline “Haredim aren’t Israel’s only draft dodgers” (July 26) is (basically) demonstrating ignorance on the part of its writer and editor.
“Draft dodger” is a pejorative term commonly understood to mean avoiding military service through illegal means. I’m far from an expert on Israeli law but as I understand its obligation to serve, true Haredi were not obligated to serve and still are not obligated to serve until regulations under the newly passed law are promulgated. As the article reported, there have been many “draft dodgers” in Israel but it neither implies nor states that true Haredi are/were among them.
I am a Jewish U.S. Marine with no love for draft dodgers (to put it mildly) and I leave it to the Israelis to sort out this matter. I am not ultra-Orthodox, not even Orthodox, but I know poor journalism when I see it. It was a good article by a seemingly knowledgeable author, but the headline is appalling.
Jack Mennis Allison Park
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Life & Culture
Lemon butter salmon with asparagus
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
When I want to make a really nice dinner, but I’m pressed for time, I turn to this salmon recipe.
I can make the fish, asparagus and a box of instant couscous in 15 minutes flat. It’s important to have a few consistent recipes on hand that are easy to prepare but make your cooking shine. While I use olive oil for most of my recipes, this salmon gets devoured because it’s cooked in real butter; use unsalted butter to keep the butter from burning.
I use barbecue-cut salmon, which means that it is already sliced into nice 2-inch wide pieces that are often on the thicker side. You can buy a pound of salmon and use a sharp knife to cut it into three pieces.
The red pepper in this recipe is more for color than spice — I love how it looks on the plate and it adds warmth to the leftover butter sauce, which I ladle over the asparagus as well. Fresh asparagus is easy to make and cooks quickly, so it’s perfect to pair with this meal.
Ingredients
Serves 2-3
Fish:
1 pound salmon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pinch of salt per piece of salmon
1 pinch of Aleppo pepper, or a little less cayenne pepper
Lemon wedges for garnish
Optional butter sauce:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3-4 tablespoons boiling water
Juice from half a lemon
Sea salt to taste
Asparagus:
1 bunch of asparagus, about 12 ounces
1 teaspoon of sea salt for the cooking water
We’ve all been served asparagus with woody, chewy ends or that has been so overcooked that it turns to mush. I have a few tips to help get the best consistency.
First, asparagus has a natural breaking point in the stalk. If you attempt to break the end off with your hand, it will bend but not break, but if you move your hand an inch or two up the stalk and try to bend it, it will naturally break. I’m not a perfectionist cook so I don’t trim every stalk to match the others.
The second tip is to blanch the asparagus spears in cold water as soon as they are forktender. You could use an ice bath, but cold tap water does a nice job. I use a 12-inch sauté pan because it fits a lot of asparagus. After snapping the ends off of the asparagus spears, place them in the pan and cover them with water to soak. If you’re checking asparagus for bugs, you can add some white vinegar to the water. Anything icky tends to float off.
Rinse the asparagus, dump out the soaking water and set the asparagus aside.
Fill the pot with a few inches of water and put it on the stove to boil. Once the water is boiling, add a teaspoon of salt and drop in the asparagus. The water should just cover the asparagus; it’s better to have a little less water and a few popping above the water than to have them fully submerged.
It takes about a minute for the water to come up to a full boil again. Once it does, reduce the heat a bit so that the water is at a medium boiling point. Asparagus can cook quickly depending on thickness. It can cook in 3 minutes or it can take as long as 7-8 minutes. The best time to remove the pan from heat is when the asparagus has turned a bright, spring-green color. Use a dinner fork to pierce the thicker pieces to see if they are soft enough to remove.
Once you take the asparagus off of the stove, immediately dump it into a colander and rinse with cold water for about 2 minutes.
I never add salt or oil to asparagus; I allow sauce from the fish to pool on the dinner plate to season them. Asparagus tastes good at all temperatures, so you can serve it at room temperature if you prefer. You also can add hollandaise sauce.
Rinse the salmon under cold water and press the pieces with a paper towel to soak up extra water before cooking. This will help prevent the butter from splattering excessively. I use salmon with the skin on so my instructions reflect that. The skin has fat, and fat is where the flavor is. Skin also keeps the fish from getting dry. You can remove it before serving if you don’t care to eat it.
Warm a skillet on a medium-low flame for 2-3 minutes. Raise the heat to medium and add 3 tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter to melt, which will take another minute. When the milk solids start to bubble, add the salmon skinside down. A medium flame should keep the butter from burning. Don’t salt the fish before cooking. Add the salt halfway to protect the butter sauce from burning.
After the fish has cooked skin-side down for a minute or so, carefully tip the pan so you can spoon the hot butter over the top of the fish. Do this consistently while cooking, setting the pan down to sit flat for 30 seconds, then tipping it to baste the fish again.
Sprinkle the top of the fish with sea salt and red pepper of your choice, which will turn the fish a pretty shade.
After 4 minutes, turn the fish. The top of the fish should be slightly opaque from the hot butter. If the skin separates from the meat, push it to the side. If the skin sticks to the bottom of the pan, let it stay there even if the fish is resting on top of it after flipping it over.
Continue to spoon the butter over the fish for another 2-3 minutes or so. You can check the thickest piece with a digital thermometer. The biggest mistake people make when cooking fish is cooking it too long and it dries out. Food safety requirements suggest an internal temperature of 140 F. I remove it from the pan when it’s at 136 F. Any fish or meat keeps cooking when removed from heat, so it will hit 140 F while resting. There will be some leftover butter in the pan that you can spoon over the plated fish.
To make a quick lemon butter sauce:
Once you remove the fish from the pan, keep the heat at medium and add 3 more tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, which should melt in about a minute.
Stir the butter with a wooden spoon and scrape the sides and bottom of the pan. The butter will have a golden color from the red pepper.
Add in the juice from half a lemon to deglaze the pan. Stir well for a minute and then add 3-4 tablespoons of boiling water.
Stir or whisk constantly for another minute or two then remove it from the heat.
This is not a true sauce so it won’t fully emulsify, but it will give you a silky butter sauce to spoon over the fish and asparagus.
Regardless of whether you make the optional sauce, serve this with fresh lemon wedges for extra zing.
This sauce will start to solidify if left to sit out and must be warmed again before serving if made in advance.
I often make this with boxed couscous, which only takes 10 minutes to cook.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC Jessica Grann
in Pittsburgh.
p Lemon butter salmon with asparagus
Photo by Jessica Grann
Life & Culture
Confronting antisemitism: ‘Saying No to Hate’ delivers essential insights and strategies
By Kathleen Gianni | Staff Writer
From ancient blood libels to contemporary campus animosity, Jews have been targeted with hate for centuries. Antisemitism in the United States, though, is often missing from history lessons, leaving students unaware of the ongoing problem — as well as Jewish resilience and courage.
As antisemitism escalates, understanding its deep-rooted history is a crucial first step to ending it. Norman H. Finkelstein’s “Saying No To Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America” (The Jewish Publication Society) opens a necessary dialogue about antisemitism in the U.S. by providing context as well as solutions.
Inspired by his observations of antisemitism, and in response to a general lack of education on the subject, Finkelstein — who died earlier this year, and was the father of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein — clearly outlines the intentions of his book: to share the history of antisemitism and offer strategies to confront it.
Across its 12 chapters, “Saying No to Hate” provides a compelling framework to help readers understand the origins of contemporary antisemitism. Finkelstein lays bare a litany of anti-Jewish events and acts of violence committed in North America for hundreds of years, and, while readers with little or no background on antisemitism will undoubtedly be shocked and disturbed, his book can serve as an important educational tool to expand their knowledge of the American Jewish experience.
“Saying No to Hate” begins with the writing of the New Testament and how antisemitism and anti-Judaism are rooted in the idea that Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus. From there, the book proceeds chronologically, covering antisemitism in politics, education, entertainment and war.
The chronological structure helps readers compare the past to the present to better understand how the hate developed into what it is today.
The book includes defining moments in American history and how antisemitism tied into them. During the American Revolution, for example, Finkelstein explains that Jews were accused of being disloyal to the cause of U.S. freedom, despite their patriotic contributions to the war. Similarly, Finkelstein writes that during the Civil Rights Movement, tensions grew between Jewish and Black Americans and “inflammatory antisemitic literature and taunts spread throughout the Black community.”
By weaving together historic events and personal narratives, Finkelstein powerfully paints the horrors of antisemitism in our country and emphasizes the strength within the Jewish community.
Finkelstein also notes global instances of hate and violence. He shares how events like the Holocaust and the rise of communism directly impacted how Jews were treated in America.
“As the war raged in Europe, antisemitism persisted in the United States,” Finkelstein writes. “Father Coughlin and the Christian Front continued to incite hate, blaming Jews for every ill in society. Jews were physically assaulted and synagogues and Jewish cemeteries desecrated around the country. Swastikas were painted on Jewishowned storefronts.”
In the final chapter of the book, “The Changing Landscape of Hate,” Finkelstein discusses antisemitism in a more modern context. He examines recent violent attacks on Jews, including the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting of 2018. In recalling the attack at the Tree of Life building, where 11 innocent worshippers were murdered by an antisemite, Finkelstein also recounts how the community came together in response.
By concluding with modern-day acts of hate in the U.S., the author reminds readers that antisemitism is not just a historical issue but an ongoing threat that must be fought.
The author offers advice for combating antisemitism, emphasizing the importance of defining and identifying hate, as well as the roles of education and policy change. Two appendices include a call to action and safety advice.
The author also shares the narratives of American figures who advocated to protect
Jewish rights or were victims of hate.
In Chapter 3, “Settling In,” Finkelstein shares the story of Isaac Leeser, an influential Jewish leader of the 19th century. Finkelstein acknowledges Leeser’s work for the Jewish
By speaking on antisemitism in relation to historical events, “Saying No to Hate” introduces an important element to consider when remembering the background of our country.
community by fighting against Catholic missionaries and founding the first Jewish periodical in the United States.
In Chapter 6, “A Lynching and a Lawyer,”
In a list excerpted from “A Jewish Call to Action”’ titled “How to Fight Antisemitism with Advocacy and Pride,” Finkelstein includes strategies to challenge antisemitism, like showing Jewish pride and holding educational institutions accountable. The second appendix, titled “How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Attack,” offers safety advice from Secure Community Network Director Michael Masters.
Finkelstein authored 23 nonfiction books, sharing historic moments like the labor movement in “Union Made” and the Holocaust in “The Shelter and the Fence.” He was an educator and historian, teaching at the Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, for 38 years. His research for “Saying No to Hate” drew from more than 100 sources of books and other publications, including the Chronicle.
Finkelstein writes about Leo Frank, an esteemed Atlanta businessman who was wrongfully accused of killing a 13-year-old girl. Despite a lack of evidence, antisemitism led to his conviction and eventual lynching.
Finkelstein ends the book with a quote from his son Jeff Finkelstein: “Our vigilance is not the same as fear. The rise in antisemitism must not make us afraid.” PJC
Kathleen Gianni can be reached at kgianni@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Life & Culture
How Gabrielle Zevin’s ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ became an unlikely lightning rod in literary fights over the Israel-Hamas war
— BOOKS —
By Andrew Lapin | JTA
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,”
Gabrielle Zevin’s novel about video game designers, has dominated the bestseller list for two years and was recently chosen as one of the New York Times’ best 100 books of the 21st century.
But for months Zevin, an author of Jewish and Korean descent with nine other books under her belt, has been grabbing headlines for an unrelated reason: accusations from pro-Palestinian corners of the literary world that she is a “Zionist” and therefore, that her works are worthy of boycott.
Zevin has never publicized any of her views on Israel. But she has become an unlikely poster figure for the culture wars around Israel that have permeated arts and culture spaces, particularly the literary world, since the outbreak of the IsraelHamas war. The latest flare-up occurred over the weekend, when a manager at a Chicago bookstore, City Lit, told book club members that they could no longer vote to read Zevin’s book owing to her perceived Zionism.
“It was brought to my attention that the author Gabrielle Zevin is a Zionist, and I am not comfortable having us reading something by her, especially knowing people would buy it from the store and she would receive monetary support from us,” the assistant manager wrote in the email. He continued, “If you want to read it, I’d encourage you to get it from the library and read it critically!”
Zevin, 46, grew up in Florida with her Korean mother and Jewish father before heading to Harvard University. She published her first novels in 2005 and has had a steady output since, but “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” has been far and away her most successful work. The book’s two protagonists, Sam and Sadie, are both of Jewish descent, a detail Zevin has said is autobiographical; she told the Harvard Crimson in 2022, “I am, like Sam in the book, half Jewish and half Korean.”
While promoting a 2014 book, she wrote, “I’m the product of no religion to speak of except, if this isn’t too pretentious to write, the religion of books.”
Readers, generally from the left, who claim Zevin is a Zionist point as evidence to one instance of her appearing at a February 2023 event hosted by the Zionist women’s organization Hadassah (a group that makes a brief appearance in the novel).
Hadassah Magazine’s executive editor Lisa Hostein denounced City Lit’s move as antisemitic on social media, where she confirmed that even Hadassah doesn’t know Zevin’s stance on Israel.
“I don’t know whether Gabrielle Zevin considers herself a Zionist or not,” Hostein
tweeted on Monday, adding that Hadassah had selected “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” for its own national book club and that, when the magazine spoke to her, “Zevin spoke proudly about her dual Jewish-Korean heritage, themes that she included in her writing for the first time.”
Hostein added, “I also know that boycotting a Jewish author for appearing before the largest Jewish women’s organization in the country is antisemitism, pure and simple.”
Some also note that “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” features an Israeli character, though the novel only references Israel tangentially and the character is widely seen as unlikeable. “Gabrielle Zevin included Israeli sympathy into her books,” one pro-Palestinian proponent of boycotting “known Zionist authors” wrote on X.
Before the current flap, Zevin was among dozens of authors who appeared on a recent viral online list titled “Is your fav author a Zionist???” — with boycotts recommended against authors for whom the answer was yes, such as Zevin.
The list was condemned by the Jewish Book Council, whose president compared it to Nazi-era book burnings, and several authors on it expressed their concern that it would make them fall victim to antisemitic targeting. In response to such incidents, the Jewish Book Council has launched an initiative for authors to report any antisemitism they experience in the literary world.
Zevin was also the subject of social media targeting in December when a fantasy subscription service, FairyLoot, defended its decision to promote a special edition of her book over online backlash owing to her
perceived Zionism.
Fairyloot rejected the accusation of Zionism as “completely unfounded.” In contrast, City Lit did not address its manager’s assumption that Zevin was a Zionist when it posted a statement Monday to social media apologizing for removing “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” from the book club poll.
“The moderator removed the book from the poll hoping to maintain in [sic] what they believed a safe and comfortable space for the group,” the bookstore said. “A better course of action would’ve been to allow the group to discuss and vote on this decision. For that we apologize.”
The lengthy statement did not apologize to Zevin. The store said her name came up after “several members” of the book club “privately reached out to the moderator to express their discomfort with the title.” The statement went on to reject accusations that removing the book as an option constituted either antisemitism or censorship.
Still, the store appeared to apologize to the Jewish community. “We will continue to welcome and host Jewish authors in our space,” it said. “We understand that due to current political events Jewish people have been victims of unfair scrutiny and we sincerely apologize to all of those who have been subjected to that response.”
Calls to City Lit last week were not answered.
Zevin, who just wrapped a nationwide tour promoting the book’s paperback release, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment through her agent.
She has never made any public statements about Israel and doesn’t address the topic in her live appearances. The closest she has
skirted may have come during a June radio interview, when she was asked how she thought it would affect first-time readers that the paperback was emerging at a time “where we have lots of major international conflicts going on.”
Zevin responded by talking about her characters, not readers. “I think the worlds that my characters find themselves in in the book is the world,” she said. “It has all of the things in it, not necessarily the particularity of 2024, you know, but it doesn’t exist in a world that doesn’t have conflict.”
With the author back in the spotlight this week, Jewish and non-Jewish critics of the Palestinian boycott movement alike were quick to condemn City Lit. New York Democratic Rep. Richie Torres, a prominent pro-Israel voice in Congress and on social media, was among those to condemn the bookstore.
“Since most Jews are Zionists, the ban is tantamount to putting up a sign that reads: ‘No Jews Allowed,’” Torres tweeted. “Anyone who adopts a policy that excludes most Jews is guilty of institutionalizing antisemitism.”
Edward Einhorn, a New York theater director, tweeted, “Gabrielle Zevin’s offenses seem to be: she had an Israeli character in a book, she spoke at Hadassah, and she’s Jewish. This sort of antisemitic McCarthyism is truly awful.”
The pro-Palestinian backlash does not appear to be hurting Zevin. In addition to her spot on the New York Times list, an upcoming film adaptation of the novel — which has sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide — is slated to be directed by Sian Heder, the Oscar-winning writer and director of “CODA.” PJC
p Author Gabrielle Zevin speaks about her bestseller “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” during the 28th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on Saturday, April 22, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Life & Culture
Uncovered floor of Vilnius’s Great Synagogue bears witness to Nazi, Soviet devastation
have uncovered the synagogue’s bimah and holy ark.
By Times of Israel Sta
Archaeologists have uncovered parts of the floor of the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania, illustrating the extent of the 17th-century synagogue’s destruction by successive Nazi and Soviet oppressors last century, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said Thursday.
Findings dated to the 17th and 18th centuries included parts of the synagogue’s women’s section, huge water basins used to ensure the purity of the synagogue’s ritual bath, or mikveh, and a giant pillar, now collapsed on its side, that stood near the synagogue’s bimah, a podium for Torah reading, the IAA said in a statement.
“The architectural wealth and vitality we encounter — alongside the destruction of impressive giant columns that collapsed during the destruction of the synagogue by the Nazis and the Soviets — tell the tragic story of a community that lived here, that is no more,” said the excavation’s directors, Jon Seligman and Justinas Rakas.
The excavations, held on behalf of the IAA, the Association of Lithuanian Archaeology, the Good Will Foundation and the Lithuanian Jewish community, were the fifth since 2015 at Vilnius’ Great Synagogue, the beating heart of one of the most important Jewish communities of the early modern era. Previous excavations
The new section uncovered by the archaeologists showed that the synagogue’s floor had been decorated with patterns of red, white and black flowers.
yeshivas — was the premier figure of 18th-century European Jewry. A man of unparalleled scientific, Talmudic and Kabbalistic erudition, the Gaon cemented Vilnius’ position as a center of Jewish learning, earning it the moniker
“In the face of rising antisemitism and attempts to deceive and deny, there is one undeniable truth, both simple and tragic, which tells us about an entire magnificent community that was destroyed due to hatred of Jews: Never Again.”
– ELI ESCUSIDO
The synagogue was burned during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, between 1941 and 1944, and razed by Soviet authorities, who ruled Lithuania from the end of World War II until 1990.
At its height, the Great Synagogue stood at the center of a complex of community institutions, known as Shulhoyf, which included other smaller synagogues, a community council building, mikvehs, study houses, a library and the home of Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna — the Yiddish name for Vilnius — who is better known as the Vilna Gaon.
The illustrious Gaon — literally “genius,” the title of heads of the classic Babylonian
“Jerusalem of Lithuania.”
The Gaon’s intellectual rigor gave rise to the modern European yeshiva. He also spearheaded the translation into Hebrew of classic scientific texts, including Euclid’s Elements.
The Gaon is also remembered for his backlash to the nascent Hasidic movement, whom he and his followers accused of flouting serious Torah study.
A large cohort of the Gaon’s disciples came to the Land of Israel, in part to counter the growing Hasidic presence there.
By the 19th century, Vilnius was incorporated into Imperial Russia. It was
part of the Pale of Settlement, the sliver of the empire where Jews were permitted to settle.
After World War I, the city was briefly the capital of Lithuania, before the Soviets conquered parts of the newly independent republic. While fighting the Soviets, Polish troops entered the city and carried out the first pogrom in its modern history.
In World War II, Vilnius was conquered by the Germans during their push into Russia in 1941. The city’s Jews — some 55,000 out of a total population of 200,000 — were forced into a ghetto, whose final inhabitants were deported to labor and death camps in 1943. The Nazis also looted and burned the Great Synagogue.
Vilnius was liberated by the Red Army in 1944. The communist regime’s antagonism toward religion weighed greatly on Soviet Jews. The Soviet attitude toward Judaism, rooted in centuries of Russian blood libels and tinted with antagonism toward “reactionary” Zionism, made it near-impossible to practice the religion.
Under the Soviets, the Great Synagogue of Vilnius, like almost all the country’s roughly 5,000 synagogues, was closed. It was demolished in the mid-1950s. A school was built on its ruins.
“In the face of rising antisemitism and attempts to deceive and deny, there is one undeniable truth, both simple and tragic, which tells us about an entire magnificent community that was destroyed due to hatred of Jews: Never Again,” said Eli Escusido, director of the IAA. PJC
HISTORY —
The decorated floor of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, discovered in an archaeological dig in Lithuania, in a photo released on July 25 Photo courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority
An artist’s depiction of the Vilna Gaon Public domain image
Years ago, a rabbinic colleague told me about a congregant who felt driven to be extra pious. She decided that she would apply the extensive food restrictions of Passover, not just for eight days, but year-round. She got rid of her regular dishes and pots, and set up a Passover-only kitchen, banning even the tiniest amount of hametz (wheat, barley, spelt, oats, or rye) and purchasing only foods that were certified kosher for Passover throughout the year. My friend struggled to explain to this woman that taking unnecessary prohibitions upon oneself is not the right path toward piety.
Among the 613 mitzvot, the majority — 365 — are negative commandments, things we are not permitted to do. What about taking on extra proscriptions, beyond what Jewish law requires? Is that meritorious, unnecessary, or ill advised?
and the medieval codes of law centuries later, advise avoiding taking vows altogether.
In my eyes, there is an important value underlying the rabbis’ contempt for vows of self-denial. We are meant to derive pleasure from that which is permitted to us. When a man vows to refrain from having sex with his wife, he is called a sinner (Talmud Ketubot). Denying oneself what is otherwise allowed is not a religious ideal. “R’ Hizkiya says in the name of Rav, ‘In the future, a person will have to give an account for everything his eye saw yet he did not eat.’” (Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin) Opportunities for enjoyment are meant to be savored, not restricted. As Shmuel says in Tractate Taanit, it is sinful to deny oneself pleasure.
To be sure, there is a strain in rabbinic tradition that values asceticism. Stories are told of sages who practiced self-denial and were even esteemed for the suffering they took upon themselves. The martyrology section of Yom Kippur liturgy, for example,
Parshat Matot opens with laws regarding vows and oaths. Among these vows are a particular kind called Nidrei Issur in which one forbids to oneself what is otherwise permissible. One can vow that one will not enjoy certain foods, wine, new clothing, finan cial profit, or any other permissible source of en Torah seems concerned that one might be unable to fulfill the vow, and articulates ways in which the vow can be nullified.
suggests that rabbis’ painful, gruesome deaths at the hands of the Romans were indicative of those sages’ righteousness.
vows are problematic. In the Rabbinic period, however, vows were viewed more negatively. An entire tractate of the Talmud, Nedarim, is devoted to the subject. The rabbis express much ambivalence about this vehicle for self-denial. Numerous avenues for nullification of vows are proffered. The Talmudic sages go even further, viewing the practice with disdain: “Anyone who takes a vow, even if they then fulfill it, is called a sinner,” says the sage Rav Dimi. Rabbi Yochanan has this to say: “Anyone who hears another speak the words of a vow should pierce him with a sword.” The Talmud,
But asceticism did not endure as a Jewish value. When there is no room for both a wedding and a funeral procession on the same road, Jewish law dictates that the funeral steps away from the road, yielding to the wedding. Similarly, when a joyous festival occurs in the midst of the week of mourning, shiva is put to a halt. Built into halacha is a corrective to the tendency of some people to privilege sorrow over joy, strictness over leniency. Jewish piety is not self-abnegation. Our tradition challenges us to embrace what is to be enjoyed in
May we find meaning in the restrictions that Jewish life places upon us, and may we allow ourselves to savor that which is
Rabbi Amy Bardack is the spiritual leader of Congregation Dor Hadash. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish
Obituaries
KAUFMAN: Joel M. Kaufman, 75, of Swissvale, passed away on July 26, 2024. Born in Philadelphia on March 29, 1949, Joel was preceded in death by his parents, Yetta and Max Kaufman. He is survived by his brother Gary of Elmhurst, Illinois, and by many friends. He received both B.A. (1970) and J.D. (1973) degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. After a clerkship with Justice Samuel Roberts of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Joel embarked on an almost half-century career in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. While that was his work, his passions were helping others, lifelong learning and being a good person. He was an Eagle Scout, scoutmaster, and recipient of the Silver Beaver Award for Distinguished Service from the Allegheny Trails Council. He received immense satisfaction from mentoring young assistants in the DA’s Office and in teaching law at the Police Academy. He was a regular at both Temple Sinai and B’nai Israel (White Oak) minyans and he was a passionate supporter of democratic and Democratic causes. Graveside service and interment were held at Temple B’nai Israel Cemetery. Contributions may be made in Joel’s memory to Temple B’nai Israel Cemetery Fund, 2025 Cypress Drive, White Oak, PA 15131. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC
Martin Indyk, blunt diplomat
By Ron Kampeas | JTA
Martin Indyk, the Jewish academic who brought intellectualism to pro-Israel advocacy and endured heartbreak as a U.S. diplomat committed to bringing peace to his beloved Israel, has died.
Indyk, 73, died July 25, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the think tank he co-founded, said in a statement. His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, said the cause was esophageal cancer, The Washington Post reported. He died at home in New Fairfield, Connecticut.
Indyk, who grew up in Australia, twice served as U.S. ambassador to Israel and was assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, all during the Clinton Administration. He later served as a peace negotiator.
He was tireless, and never shied from a confrontation. He never lost his Australian accent even as he rose to the heights of U.S. diplomacy, nor his sarcastic wit.
“Ambassador Indyk calls it as he sees it,” an Obama administration official told the Forward in 2014, the last time Indyk had an official U.S. role, as a special envoy supervising the 20132014 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. “It’s the Australian in him, perhaps. He’s more frank than most diplomats, but he is speaking out because he cares about Israel’s future.”
As recently as last month, Indyk deployed typically biting rhetoric to excoriate one of his nemeses, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but in terms that made clear that what most upset Indyk most was the danger he believed Netanyahu posed to Israel.
“Israel is at war on four fronts: with Hamas in
Gaza; with Houthis in Yemen; with Hezbollah in Lebanon; and with Iran overseeing the operations,” Indyk said on June 19 on X, a day after Netyanyahu claimed — and the Biden administration denied — that President Joe Biden was withholding weapons from Israel.
“What does Netanyahu do?” Indyk continued. “Attack the United States based on a lie that he made up! The Speaker and Leader should withdraw his invitation to address Congress until he recants and apologizes.” (Netanyahu did not recant, was not disinvited and delivered the speech on July 24.)
Indyk was an unusual diplomat in that he rarely held back, in public or private interactions. He may be the only U.S. diplomat to have the distinction of enduring public anti-Jewish slurs from both Israeli and Arab officials.
Once, while serving as U.S. ambassador to Israel in 1997, Indyk seemed close to coming to blows with a hardline right-wing Israeli politician, Rehavam Ze’evi, who called him a “yehudon,” the Hebrew equivalent of an antisemitic slur. Ze’evi was angry at Indyk for pushing Israel to make concessions in negotiations with the Palestinians.
“The last time someone called me a Jew-boy I was 15 years old and he got a punch in the face,” Indyk, then the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Ze’evi at a public event.
Ze’evi and Israel’s government later apologized for the slur.
A year after that, Indyk was promoted to assistant secretary of state, in part because he wanted out of the ambassador’s job because he found it so hard to get along with Netanyahu, then in his first term.
Indyk nonetheless kept a hand in trying to
Sunday August 4: Dr Nathan Ashinsky Sarah L Blumenthal, Samuel J Cramer, Rae R Granowitz, Leon
Robert Greenberg, Tiby M Grinberg, Louis Kitman, Milton Myer, Fannie Dvinsky Pollock, Janice Standel, Jacob Stein, Alexander Udman, Joseph H Wells, Rebecca Siegel Wilner, Mildred Marlin Wolovitz
Monday August 5: Leonard Barmak, Yolana Berger, Saul Cazen, Ben W Closky, Celia Cohen, Rose Freed, Mildred “Mitzie” Gold, Max Goldston, Jacob Herring, Max Levenson, Jacob Liberman, Harry Louik, Abram Morgan, Essie Rogalsky Rosenfield, Samuel Ruben, Hannah Rubenson, Sidney Schwartz, Ben Shapiro, Sarah Shapiro, Wilma Shlakman, Ida Shoag, Frances Siegman, Eva Simon, Abraham B Slesnick, Edward Irving Stein, Jack Wolf
Tuesday August 6: Louis Gerson, Ruth Wein Gordon Herskovitz, Samuel Honig, Benjamin Lebby, Fay Levin, Charles Gershen Lisowitz, Florence B Perilman, Sarah Rosenberg, Manuel Siniakin, Samuel Nathan Unger, Marcus D Wedner, Louis M Witkin, Meyer Zarkin
Wednesday August 7: Frank Burnstein, Matel Cooper, Rae Danovitz, Charles Goldberg, Edwin Goldberg, Louis Harris, Mollie Lappin, Anna Levenson, Harry Levine, Nathan Lewis, Harry W Liebman, Sol Rosenblum, Ruth Rebecca Sherman, Meyer Silberblatt, Elizabeth Young
Thursday August 8: Norman Amper, Samuel Fargotstein, Hilda Goldstein, David Lee Greenfield, Esther F Horelick, Martin M Kramer, Jessie W Levenson, Ruth Grinberg Lincoff, Merle M Pearlman, Dorothy S Pollock, William S Winer
Friday August 9: Rose Cramer, Bessie Rini Glass, Dr Abraham D Goldblum, Sophia Goldstein, Morris L Kaufman, Helen S Luptak, Gertrude Mitchel, Alvin J Moldovan, Benjamin Olender, Eli Racusin, Harry Rapoport, Rae Rosenthal, Rose Smith, Philip Wekselman
Saturday August 10: Harry Adler, Mollie R Bennett, Marvin B Bernstein, Hannah Bromberg, Ida Cantor, Robert Congress, Dorothy Crutch, Sophia Freedman, Helen Handelsman, Dora Kaufman, Sarah Kleinerman, Gizella Krause, David Levine, Anna G Rosenthal, John Schwartz, Leonard Skirboll, Irene Weitzman Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690 or development@jaapgh.org
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— NEWS OBITUARY —
p Martin Indyk pictured in 2015
Photo courtesy of Brookings Institution Press
“We recognize the good only in its absence.”
Lee & Lisa Oleinick
NOTICE OF HEARING
IN RE: PETITION OF CONGREGATION BETH JACOB, A PENNSYLVANIA UNINCORPORATED NON-PROFIT CORPORATION AND THE BETH JACOB CEMETERY FUND, A PENNSYLVANIA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION TO APPROVE A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE; Case No. 02-24-3487 in the Orphan’s Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Notice is hereby given that the Court has set a hearing on the Petition of Congregation Beth Jacob and the Beth Jacob Cemetery Fund to approve a Fundamental Change in the form of the transfer of the ownership and management of the Beth Jacob Cemetery (located in West Mifflin, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania), and the transfer of certain funds held by the Beth Jacob Cemetery Fund to the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh. The hearing will be held in the Orphans’ Court Division, Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 437 Grant Street, 17th floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 2024, at 10.30 A.M. before the Honorable Michael F. Marmo. Any interested person is invited to attend. Information may be obtained from Robert J. Garvin Esq., Goldberg, Kamin & Garvin LLP, 437 Grant Street, Suite 1806, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219, phone (412) 281-1119; Attorney for Petitioner.
Obituaries
Indyk:
Continued from page 19
bring about Israeli-Palestinian peace, but was also in charge of a vexing challenge for the Clinton administration — how to contain both Iraq and Iran, two countries that were deeply antagonistic to the United States but also deadly enemies to one another.
Once again, he came under antisemitic attack. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, just 15 months after the Ze’evi incident, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf wrote, “The statements of the United States Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk, who is a known Jew and Zionist, are simply an official and documented reaffirmation of the enmity of the United States administration toward Iraq.”
Bill Richardson, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, demanded an apology, which he did not receive.
Indyk was born in London and raised in Australia. He traced his ambitions to become a peacemaker to 1973, when he was studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, during the Yom Kippur War.
“It taught me just how fragile Israel’s existence was and how central the United States is to war and peace in the Middle East,” Indyk said in 1995 of his experience in Israel during Senate confirmation hearings for his first diplomatic role, as U.S. ambassador to Israel.
He volunteered on a kibbutz in 1973, and considered settling in Israel. Instead, he returned to Australia and launched a career in government as a Middle East analyst.
Indyk came to the United States in 1982 on a sabbatical and soon found work with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, where he was mentored by Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s hard-charging director of foreign policy who saw in Indyk a version of himself — impatient with niceties and eager to find out what exactly was at the essence of the vague bromides U.S. diplomats dispensed.
Indyk and Rosen noticed that conservative think tanks, a relatively recent phenomenon, were putting out policy papers that were soon becoming Reagan administration policy. It was a revelation. A think tank could come up with detail-rich policies, and find officials eager to claim the plans as their own.
So in 1985 Indyk launched the Washington Institute in partnership with Barbi Weinberg, a top AIPAC donor. The think tank remains influential, with direct lines into the governments of the United States, Israel and multiple Arab nations.
“From the outset, Indyk emphasized bipartisan approaches to regional problems and outreach that transcended traditional zero-sum thinking about the Arab-Israeli conflict, packaged in highly accessible formats that brought the analytical product of Institute experts directly to readers across the government,” the Washington Institute said in its memorial for Indyk.
AIPAC also mourned Indyk, even though in recent years if he attended an AIPAC event, there were tensions over his tendency to criticize Israel’s right-wing governments and their pro-settlement policies.
“Martin’s leadership helped make the Institute one of Washington’s premier foreign policy research organizations,” AIPAC said.
In presidential election years, AIPAC reaches out to candidates for brief meetings to assess their Israel policy, and to offer advice. Rosen
scheduled a meeting in the 1992 presidential cycle with Bill and Hillary Clinton and had a hunch: Indyk and the Clintons, all three infatuated with the deep intricacies of policy, would get along.
Indyk, directing the Washington Institute, was no longer with AIPAC, but Rosen asked him to come to the meeting. At the meeting with the Clintons, the usually loquacious Rosen sat back and watched history unfold as the three clicked with each other. A scheduled 20-minute meeting stretched for hours.
The Clintons were not afraid to display their ignorance, asking blunt questions. Indyk intuited they would also not be afraid to hear and absorb long, complex answers which would prompt more questions.
“I like it when you’re around, Martin,” Clinton once joked, “because you and I both have funny accents.”
Once elected president, Clinton brought Indyk on to the National Security Council as a Middle East specialist. Indyk played a central role in bringing about the Oslo accords, and the September 1993 handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Within two years, Indyk, who became a U.S. citizen, made history when Clinton named him the first Jewish U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Indyk left government with Clinton in 2001 and watched his dreams of a two-state outcome crumble under the pressures of the Second Intifada, and increased PalestinianIsraeli mistrust.
“He battled cancer the way he lived his life, with purpose and an unrelenting spirit,” tweeted Dennis Ross, who served as a peace negotiator alongside Indyk. “Martin lived a life of meaning; he pursued peace-making between Israel and its neighbors with passion, skill and decency.”
After leaving government, he transitioned into permanent think tank mode, housed for years at the Brookings Institution and then at the Council on Foreign Relations. He briefly returned to government under President Barack Obama to supervise the 2013-2014 peace talks, the last serious round of negotiations, which were also unsuccessful.
He claimed not to have patience for Jewish and Israeli agonizing over whether American leaders liked them, lashing out in 2011 at Bush administration alumnus Elliott Abrams, who fretted on a panel they were both on that Obama had “no great love in his heart for Israel.”
“It’s time to grow up,” Indyk said. “We should get over the question of whether he loves me or he loves me not, and focus on [the] question of finding a solution to conflict with the Palestinians. When Israel decides by itself to solve that problem, it will have the overwhelmingly cuddly support of the US President.”
And yet, Indyk was no stranger to sentiment. Taking on his last government role in 2013, he said he still held dear the notion that one day, he could help forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“Fifteen years ago my son, Jacob, who was 13 at the time, designed a screensaver for my computer,” he said, addressing then-Secretary of State John Kerry, who selected Indyk for the job. “It consisted of a simple question that flashed across the screen constantly: Dad, is there peace in the Middle East yet?”
He is survived by his wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, two children from his first marriage, Jacob and Sarah, and five grandchildren. PJC
Pittsburgh Chabad House on Campus shluchim (emissaries) visited Chabad Center of Sderot and met with IDF soldiers during a recent visit to Israel.
in July
Although the Jewish holiday of Purim often occurs in the spring, J&R Day Camp used a wacky summer Wednesday to teach young people about the holiday’s message.
Bring Them Home
Community members gathered at the corner of Darlington Road and Murray Avenue on July 28 in support of the 120 hostages still held by Hamas
Keeping the connection
Community Day School educators visited Emma Kaufmann Camp. The meetup allowed CDS staff to reconnect with student campers, alumni and the Shinshinim.
Raising
voices in D.C.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington D.C., Pittsburghers Adi Sampson Perlman and Uzi Sampson joined demonstrators in the nation’s capital urging Netanyahu to reach a deal that brings the hostages home.
p From left: Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein, Rabbi Shlomo Silverman and Rabbi Shmuel Weinstein
p Uzi Sampson and Adi Sampson Perlman
Photo courtesy of Adi Sampson Perlman
p Rabbi Seth Adleson addresses the crowd
Photo by Jonathan Dvir
p Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the annual gathering of Chabad on Campus International emissaries in Jerusalem. Photos courtesy of Chabad House on Campus
p Building bonds between classrooms and camp. Photo courtesy of Community Day School
Purim
p Purim costume worn by the top dog. Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
