Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 8-25-23

Jewish Heritage Night at PNC

AIPAC, J Street and Summer Lee wrangle over 2024 District 12 race

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

Two political advocacy organizations

US Rep. Chris Deluzio returns from trip to Israel

By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) said he saw firsthand the strength of the relationship between Israel and the United States during a seven-day trip to the Jewish state.

Deluzio, who represents most of the northwestern suburbs of Pittsburgh, joined 23 other members of Congress earlier this month for what he called a “substantive” trek to Israel.

The journey, he said, was centered in Jerusalem but included the breadth of the region and incorporated the Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights, among other stops.

“We received briefings and had meetings across the political spectrum, Israeli and Palestinian alike,” he said, “really diving into the issues that are being debated around the heart of democracy in Israel and what its future looks like as a Jewish and democratic state, and, frankly, the road — however rocky — to lasting

security and peace of two states, side by side.”

The delegation, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Yair Lapid and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

“We were taking pretty serious meetings at a high level to hear the perspective of, I think, every part of leadership in the region, as best we could,” Deluzio said.

The trip gave the congressman a greater appreciation of the importance and strength of the relationship between Israel and the United States, he said, noting that it highlighted U.S. interests in the region, especially in terms of security.

To that end, Deluzio said the delegation toured an Iron Dome battery site, “which

Please see Deluzio, page 10

— each identifying as pro-Israel — are in the midst of a tussle over the 2024 congressional race for Pennsylvania’s 12th district, which includes Squirrel Hill.

At the heart of the row between AIPAC and J Street is the reelection campaign of first-term Rep. Summer Lee, who last month was one of only nine House members voting against a resolution declaring Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state.”

Lee, along with “Squad” members Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, also skipped Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress on July 19. In May, she was one of 17 co-sponsors of proposed legislation that would restrict aid to Israel and, in April, Lee voted against a resolution marking Israel’s 75th anniversary, heralding the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship and urging the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

JStreetPAC, a political action committee connected to J Street, endorsed Lee in her bid for Congress in 2022, while the United Democracy Project — an AIPAC affiliate — campaigned against her.

Artist Ben Schachter’s

 Jason Kunzman, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s chief program officer and incoming CEO, throws the first pitch on Jewish Heritage Night at PNC Park on Aug. 9.

Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Pirates

 Rep. Summer Lee Photo courtesy of summerlee.house.gov/press

Headlines

Getting to know: Rabbi Meir Tabak

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

Rabbi Meir Tabak believes in the power of a smile.

Tabak is the new city director of NCSY, the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, a Jewish youth group for teens in grades six through 12 under the auspices of the Orthodox Union.

“If you’re Jewish and you’re a teenager, we’d love to see you,” Tabak said. “If you don’t have a smile yet, we’d like to put one on for you.”

A recent transplant to the city, Tabak meets the most important prerequisite to qualify as a true Pittsburgher: He’s a Steelers fan despite growing up in Borough Park and attending yeshiva in New York, Toronto and Jerusalem. It was a cousin from the Steel City who helped convert the now 26-year-old to become a fan of the storied football team.

“For the last nine years, I’ve been a big Steelers fan, but I never thought I would end up in Pittsburgh,” he said.

His journey to Pittsburgh and NCSY began in Jerusalem where he was living with his wife, Rivky. Tabak’s original plan was to find a job in the tech industry but said the pandemic forced him to rethink his priorities.

Instead of finding employment at a startup, a friend suggested he look at Ohr Lagolah, a two-year rabbinic outreach and teacher training program accredited by the Israel Ministry of Education. Shortly before he finished the course, Tabak was recruited by NCSY director Tzali Freedman.

“He told me had a job in Pittsburgh.

It was just so funny how it all clicked,” Tabak said. “In my mind, I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if I could come to Pittsburgh?’”

hat worn by some Chasidic Jews) in Pittsburgh,” he said. “I tend to stand out and I love it.”

Tabak is part of the Chasidic group

helped create an organization that assisted community members who couldn’t afford the basics.

And both he and Tabak’s father also help people who are incarcerated.

“It was something I was aware of my entire life but something I never thought of as a career choice,” Tabak said.

His goal is to get teens familiar with NCSY, whether they live in Squirrel Hill or the suburbs, or if they consider themselves Orthodox, Reform or simply Jewish.

NCSY focuses on the classics, he said: Love your fellow Jew and love Israel.

“This year, we’re focusing on the ‘love your fellow Jew’ part. We feel that in today’s age teens are caught up on what’s going on online and just need a little encouragement to make sure everybody feels safe, and everybody gets along and has a wonderful time,” he said.

Tabak, his wife and two young children have been in the city for about a year and attend services at both Poale Zedeck and Shaare Torah. The couple is already integrated into the community, though. Shortly after moving to Pittsburgh, their second son was born, and they had to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Tabak said the response of community members was overwhelming.

“They made us feel we were taken care of in every way possible,” he said.

“So many people wanted to help.”

And while they are becoming part of the fabric in Squirrel Hill, Tabak said he’s easy to spot.

“I am one of only two ‘shtreimels’ (a fur

Spinka, which wears the headgear, he explained. It isn’t as well-known in Pittsburgh, he said, which sometimes leads people to think he’s a part of the Lubavitch community.

Of course, he said, the uniqueness has advantages.

“On Halloween, a lot of people were complimenting me on my costume,” he recalled with a laugh.

Helping the Jewish community is part of the rabbi’s DNA. His grandfather helped start the Hatzalah in his Brooklyn community. The ambulatory organization began when people realized 911 wasn’t responding quickly enough in some communities, so they created their own volunteer group. He also

The Pittsburgh group also interacts with teens around the country. The Central East Region, of which Pittsburgh is a part, includes Cleveland, Columbus and Detroit.

In fact, the youth group is preparing for its regional Shabbaton in Cassopolis, Michigan, from Sept. 1-3. The event will feature American-Israeli rapper Nissim Black.

Tabak said he joined NCSY at a time of growth, and he is looking to build on its success.

“The woman who used to run NCSY did an amazing job, and there is a solid foundation,” he said. “I’m hoping to build on what has already been set in place.” PJC

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NCSY focuses on the classics: Love your fellow Jew and love Israel.

p Rabbi Meir Tabak (right) and Dan Butler at the 2023 NCSY Garden Sizzler Photo by Sandy Riemer

Headlines

At Hillel JUC, campus life restarts with orientation activities and bagels

— LOCAL —

Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

Bring on the bagels: Students are craving food and Jewish engagement. To satisfy hungry undergrads, Hillel JUC — in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh — welcomed firstyear students to Oakland and showcased a pathway to collegiate Jewish life.

More than 200 individuals registered for programs and activities designed to “acclimate students to Pitt’s campus and to Pittsburgh as a whole,” Dan Marcus, Hillel JUC’s executive director, said.

The opportunities, which began Aug. 17, include cursory conversations, Friday night services, Shabbat dinner and, of course, a bagel brunch for first-year students and their families.

In each setting, the goal is introducing new students to those who’ve walked these roads before, Marcus explained.

Thanks to several student volunteers, newcomers can “learn firsthand about being a student and a Jewish student at Pitt,” he added.

Basia Silverberg, president of Hillel at Pitt, said that by co-leading introductory activities she hopes to convey how people can not only “feel welcome in this city, but also how to be Jewish in their own way at Pitt.”

Creating that niche is critical, Silverberg explained.

After arriving on campus two years ago, she noticed a disconnect between Jewish life at Pitt and what she experienced growing up in “Conservative traditional spaces” in Los Angeles. “There wasn’t anything between Reform and Chabad,” she said.

Hillel JUC allowed her to become a Ruach Fellow and create a specific project, which led to developing a Conservative Jewish community on campus, she said.

Most of the community’s activities involve Shabbat services, but what became clear, she said, was that “I feel like my version of Judaism is welcome at Pitt and at Hillel.”

Silverberg wants first-years to know they have similar options.

“Whether you connect to Judaism culturally or religiously, I really appreciate how Hillel helps people make Judaism their own,” she said.

The semester’s start is about introducing and incorporating, said Brian Burke, Hillel JUC’s IACT coordinator for

Israel engagement.

Thanks to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and The Shapira Foundation, Burke said, 35 students spent eight weeks in the Jewish state with Onward Israel. Fifty students also participated in Birthright.

students want to be more engaged and involved.”

Several of the students will do so during the Jeannette Comensky Kalson leadership retreat.

The one-day program will empower student leaders to “innovate, create

Whether excursions involved Onward Israel, Birthright, other foreign travel or even camping, the conversations signaled that “the mood feels different than the past two to three years” during which so many discussions concerned COVID-19 restrictions, Marcus said.

“Bringing that momentum back to campus is a big priority for us,” he said. The students who returned from Israel can serve as “ambassadors on campus” and grow various communities — even those seemingly unaffiliated with Hillel JUC.

Some undergrads may become leaders “on our board, on Chabad’s board or become active in the Greek community,” Burke continued. “In all of these spaces, the students who went to Israel can share their experience in a way that other

and develop programs and activities,” Marcus said.

Between that retreat and other orientation activities, Burke said he’s “really excited to see what this year has to offer.”

Marcus echoed that enthusiasm and contrasted the start of the semester with previous years: “It’s about mood and approach.”

Two hours before speaking with the Chronicle, several student leaders entered Hillel JUC’s building and recapped their summer adventures.

“Obviously, we are not indifferent or dismissing our responsibilities to the health and welfare of our students,” he continued. What’s nice this year, though, is that as undergrads enter the building and prepare for a new year, Hillel JUC can enable individuals, in a safe environment, to “gather together, celebrate together and create all of the communities that our students want and need.” PJC

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

p University of Pittsburgh students enjoy FreshFest at Hillel JUC.

Photo courtesy of Hillel JUC

The students who returned from Israel can serve as “ambassadors on campus” and grow various communities — even those seemingly unaffiliated with Hillel JUC.

Headlines

Israeli choreographer Barak Marshall brings ‘Monger’ to the Pittsburgh stage

— LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

American-born Israeli choreographer

Barak Marshall has returned to dance after a forced pandemic hiatus.

Marshall is staging his piece “Monger” four times this year, including a stop in Pittsburgh as part of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s “Light in the Dark” season opener.

He is excited about the timing.

“It’s 15 years after I created it,” Marshall said. “It was not planned, but I think that’s the nature of dance. It has a cool dynamic and I’m so grateful to be able to work.”

Despite not initially intending to enter the field, Marshall has a storied career in dance.

His piece “Aunt Leah” won first prize at the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s Shade of Dance Choreography Competition in 1995. Three years later, his work “Emma Goldman’s Wedding” swept the Bagnolet International Competition in Paris, the Prix d’Auteur, the Bonnie Byrd Award and the ADAMI Award. His company toured Europe before he was invited to become Israel’s Batsheva Dance Co.’s first in-house choreographer in 1999.

Marshall’s career has defied his late entry into the field — he studied social theory and philosophy at Harvard University before immigrating to Israel in 1994 — and his occasional hiatuses from the arena.

The choreographer’s mother is Israel’s Yemenite prima ballerina Margalit Oved. He traveled with her as a child and studied music and theater as a youth but didn’t plan to pursue a career in the arts.

When his mother was appointed the

artistic director of the Inbal Dance Theatre in Israel, Marshall’s father urged him to accompany her. Six months after the two moved to the Jewish state, his aunt Leah died.

“During shiva, in my grief, I would go back to the studio. I closed the studio door, put on music and tried to imprint everything so I would not forget it, so she would remain living with me — how she would clean the floor, how she would curse, how she would bless, how she would kiss me. I put on music, and I was crying and I was mourning,” he said.

A friend who secretly watched from a balcony in the studio suggested he turn the movement into a dance, which became “Aunt Leah.”

Marshall created “Monger” during a pause from dancing.

The choreographer broke his leg in 2000 and couldn’t properly walk for a year and a half. He moved back to Los Angeles, the city he called home before relocating to Israel, and didn’t dance again for eight years. It was during this hiatus from the stage that he wrote “Monger.”

The piece explores the dynamics of hierarchy, power and dignity and the compromises that one makes to survive. It’s inspired by the work of Polish novelist and painter Bruno Shultz, Jean Genet’s play “The Maids” and Robert Altman’s film “Gosford Park.”

“It’s not an easy road to navigate as an American in Israel. I think it was an incredible time in my life but also very trying, to be a polite American in an impolite society,” he recalled.

Marshall also drew inspiration for the piece from the world of dance, which he said is hierarchical.

“But I don’t think I can give you an origin story because I think there are many origin stories, as there are with all my works,” he said, noting that his choreography involves a collection of influences that resonate with one another to help create a new story.

Marshall said he was involved in the selection of dancers for the production of “Monger” in Pittsburgh, a city whose Jewishness surprised him.

“I didn’t realize how Jewish the city was,” he said. “It was also surprising to see Orthodox Jews on a plane to Pittsburgh. I pretend that I’m worldly but don’t know the United States very well. I also know the Tree of Life. It’s fascinating to see anytime a Jewish community is existing or thriving

and see the factors that have allowed for that.”

Marshall said his Jewish identity is the main influence on his work, noting his father’s background — a Bronx, New York, native whom he calls a “Catskills crooner” — and his mother’s heritage, which he referred to as “a rich dowry” from which he’s able to draw.

That doesn’t mean, though, that he hasn’t faced challenges.

“There was an old guard that didn’t like that I was using my Mizrahi heritage,” he noted. “There was definitely a pushback. It was, ironically, European presenters that gave me my credentials.”

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Adam W. McKinney said that the company is “overjoyed” to feature “Monger” in its 2023-‘24 season opener, “Light in the Dark.”

“‘Monger’s’ core message and roots in religious and cultural diversity perfectly align with our mission and values,” McKinney said. “‘Monger’ will also help us collectively commemorate, promote healing and create community connections on the fifth anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre.”

Marshall, too, is pleased to be working with PBT and McKinney.

“It really speaks to his vision and the ability of the dancers,” Marshall said. “I think he’s really trying to open up this company to many different styles and to really be inclusive.”

PBT is staging “Light in the Dark” from Oct. 27-29 at the Byham Theater. PJC

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

p A Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre rehearsal of “Monger”

Photo by Daivd Rullo

p Barak Marshall

Photo by Daniel Tchetchik

“‘Monger’s’ core message and roots in religious and cultural diversity perfectly align with our mission and values.”

– ADAM W. MCKINNEY

Headlines

— HISTORY — Underground history

By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

One of the most important Jewish sites in Western Pennsylvania is the Dairy Queen on Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Carrick. That’s where hundreds if not thousands of families know where to turn to reach one of the largest Jewish cemetery complexes in the region.

Pass through the arching iron gate of this complex, follow the brick road past the hairpin turn, uphill, as far as it will accommodate a car, and then hike a bit further uphill on foot, and you’ll reach the oldest part of the cemetery. It’s a four-acre plot on a two-way slope with sections of four burial grounds: Beth Abraham Cemetery, Shaare Zedeck Cemetery, the old section of the Shaare Torah/Gates of Wisdom Cemetery and the small Marks Family Cemetery — all now managed by the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association.

As you step through the rows of stones, you will find many mysteries. Some strike you immediately, like the miniature, illegible graves in the children’s section. Certain deeper mysteries, though, only emerge as you start fitting together the ragged historical record.

For example, here you will find the grave of Joseph Reichman.

Reichman was a cigar maker and later the mashigiach (inspector) at Montefiore Hospital’s kosher kitchen. He was a leader of the Galizianer community in Pittsburgh — a charter member of Machsikei Hadas Congregation and its secretary for 20 years.

When he died, his obituary noted that the burial would occur at the Machsikei Hadas Cemetery in Millvale. It didn’t. It occurred here, at the Shaare Zedeck Cemetery.

A few rows away lies Michael Sigal. He was a leader of the Romanian community in Pittsburgh and a charter member of New Light Congregation. About half his family is buried in New Light Cemetery. The other half is buried near him at Shaare Zedeck.

Shaare Zedeck was the local Polishe shul, founded in 1895 by Jewish immigrants

from the country around Warsaw. Why are Reichman, Sigal, their wives and others from Galicia and Romania all buried in the local Polish cemetery, instead of alongside their landsmen and extended families at the cemeteries of the congregations they founded?

Because it wasn’t originally a Polishe cemetery.

Shaare Torah Congregation purchased the initial four-acre plot of this cemetery complex for $900 in September 1891 and segmented the property to serve emerging factions within the immigrant Jewish community. It kept one acre, sold another acre to Ahave Sholem Congregation in 1892 and sold the remaining two-acre L-shaped parcel to a group called “Anshei Russia,” which is almost certainly Beth Abraham Congregation.

Through several far-sighted land purchases and expansions, Beth Abraham grew to the west. Shaare Torah grew to the east, acquiring a large plot of land across Stewart Avenue.

Ahave Sholem Congregation didn’t grow. It was small and short-lived and left little documentation. What survives, though, marks a turning point in local Jewish history.

Ahave Sholem was chartered in 1889. Its founders came from Galicia, a historic region of Europe that covers parts of present-day Poland and Ukraine, and from Romania, just to the south. Among the founders of Ahave Sholem were Joseph Reichman, Mike Sigal and a few others whose markers can be found in the Shaare Zedeck and Marks cemeteries.

Pittsburgh proper had at least six Jewish congregations in 1889. Rodef Shalom and Tree of Life were defined by denomination. The other six were Orthodox congregations defined by ethnicity: two were Lithuanian, one was Hungarian and one was Russian. Every new congregation emerges from some dissatisfaction with the status quo. It makes sense that the earliest Romanians and Galizianers in town felt uncomfortable with the available options and wanted something more familiar. The question is why they united.

Their coalition only lasted a few years. As Jewish immigration accelerated through the 1890s, the two contingents within the congregation each grew large enough to split.

Hadas. The Romanians started Ohel Jacob Congregation, which later changed its name to Oir Chudesh and is now New Light. These two congregations had something in common.

In an August 1994 oral history about Machsikei Hadas, Sidney Santman said, “It was Galizianers. You went where you came from. It was a Galizianer shul and that’s it.”

“Was there anything in the rituals or anything else that made it different from the other synagogues?” the interviewer asked.

“Well, they daven in Sephardic.”

“OK.”

“They didn’t daven in Ashkenazi.”

“OK.”

“You know what that is?”

The interviewer outlined the differences between the Ashkenazic Jewry emerging from Eastern Europe and the Sephardic Jewry of Spain and then wondered aloud, “But it is interesting that Galicia is in Eastern Europe however, the ritual, at least the one followed here in Pittsburgh, was the Spanish or Sfardi ritual. Do you know why that was?”

“No, I don’t know why,” Santman said.

“I think it has something to do with how, where the population initially came from when they were expelled from Spain and where they ended up settling,” the interviewer said.

“Probably that would be reasonable.”

Reasonable, but wrong.

Machsikei Hadas was not a Sephardic congregation. It was a “Nusach Sfard” congregation.

Nusach Sfard is a style of prayer, not an ethnic identity. Confusingly, Nusach Sfard is not the style of prayer used by most of Sephardic Jewry. That is called Nusach Eidot Hamizrachi. Nusach Sfard is a style of prayer developed by Ashkenazim who wanted to incorporate certain Kabbalistic components from Sephardic prayer into their worship.

There have been various Nusach Sfard congregations in Pittsburgh over the years, including Torath Chaim in East Liberty and the current Kesser Torah. But in those early years at the turn of the century, there was only one other besides Machsikei Hadas.

Article 1-Section 1 of the 1931 New Light Congregation bylaws proclaims: “The name of our congregation shall always be ‘Or Chodesh Anshei Romanian,’ according to our charter. It can never be changed. And our prayer is in the Nusach Sfard and is Orthodox.”

In a city where every Orthodox synagogue was using a version of Nusach Ashkenaz, a cohort of Galizianers and Romanians united around a preference for Nusach Sfard.

This leads to one final revelation.

Who were the Kabbalistically inclined Ashkenazim who created Nusach Sfard?

Often, they were Chassidim.

Santman recalled that the founders of Machsikei Hadas were mostly disciples of the Belz Dynasty. “Machsikei Hadas,” Hebrew for “Defenders of the Knowledge,” was also the name of a club, political party and newspaper founded by Belzer Chassidim in Galicia.

Less is known about the origins of the founders of New Light Congregation. Perhaps some enterprising genealogist in the community will track down their origins to see if they are clustered around some of the famous Chassidic dynasties of Romania.

If so, it would suggest that Ahave Sholem was the first congregation in the city with Chassidic influences and that the current Shaare Zedeck Cemetery is its physical marker. PJC

Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at rjarchives@ heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.

pThe gates of the Shaare Zedeck Cemetery in Carrick

Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish Archives

p The Marks Family Cemetery contained within Shaare Zedeck Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish Archives

Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.

q SUNDAY, AUG. 27

Join Chabad of the South Hills for Babyccino, a chic meet for moms and tots. Explore the High Holidays in pint-size proportions music, movement, sensory stimulants and expressive arts. 10:30 a.m. $12 per class. chabadsh.com/babyccino.

q SUNDAYS, AUG. 27 – DEC. 3

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

q SUNDAYS, AUG. 27 – DEC. 17

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.

q MONDAYS, AUG. 28 – DEC. 18

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

q TUESDAY, AUG. 29

Community members are welcome to attend Memories of Tree of Life: Storytelling Event. Enjoy music, refreshments and stories. Storytellers will share their own memories and you are welcome

to share yours as well. Photographs and videos from the Tree of Life’s history will recall all the personal moments that made up the last 70 years. Organized by the 10.27 Healing Partnership in collaboration with the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Heinz History Center and the Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh. 6 p.m. Wightman School Community Building, 5604 Solway St., 15217. 1027healingpartnership.org/event/memories-oftree-of-life-storytelling-and-sharing-event.

q WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 30 – DEC. 20

Join AgeWell for an intergenerational family dynamics discussion group, led by intergenerational specialist/presenter and educator Audree Schall. Third Wednesday of each month. Free. 12:30 p.m. South Hills JCC.

q WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 30 – DEC. 27

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.

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.

q FRIDAY, SEPT. 1

Rodef Shalom Congregation wants to spend Shabbat with you. Families with young children are invited to join Cantor Toby Glaser and Family Center Director Ellie Feibus for a pre-Shabbat playdate, services and dinner to celebrate Shabbat together. $5 per family. 4:30 p.m. $5 per family. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org.

q TUESDAY, SEPT. 5

Join Chabad of Greenfield for a Pre-Rosh Hashanah women’s challah bake. 7:30 p.m. $18. 4315 Murray Ave. ChabadofGreenfield.com/ highholidays.

q THURSDAY, SEPT. 7

Women are invited to join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for Loaves of Love. Bake festive Rosh Hashanah challahs. 7 p.m. $12. Chabad of Squirrel Hill, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

q THURSDAY, SEPT. 7 –WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13

Film Pittsburgh’s 11th annual ReelAbilities Pittsburgh film festival brings people together to explore and celebrate the lives and experiences of people living with disabilities and shows how we are all more alike than we are different. These engaging films are presented with open captions or subtitles, audio description, ASL interpretation and other accommodations, free of charge. This exciting event also includes Q&As with visiting filmmakers, an art exhibit, and inclusive and fun receptions. $18. Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, 350 Forbes Ave. filmpittsburgh.org.

q SUNDAY, SEPT. 10

Join Chabad of Greenfield for a Pre-Rosh Hashanah Bash. 11 a.m. $7 per child. 4315 Murray Ave. chabadofgreenfield.com/ highholidays.

Take part in Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Women’s Mini Retreat, a pre-High Holiday program of inspiration, connection and rejuvenation. 11 a.m. $54. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Aug. 27 discussion of “The Secret Chord” by Geraldine Brooks.

From Amazon.com: “With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times bestselling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature’s richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring [King] David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.”

Your Hosts:

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle

David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

How and When:

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Aug. 27, at noon.

What To Do

Buy: “The Secret Chord.” It is available from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and through the Carnegie Library system.

q MONDAY, SEPT. 11

Join Chabad of the South Hills for New Beginnings: Ladies Night Out. Guest speaker Devorah Rubin will talk about seeing G-d’s blessings while navigating an unexpected medical challenge. Enjoy a delicious buffet of Rosh Hashanah salads and side dishes. 7:30 p.m. $18. chabadsh.com/ladies.

q WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13

Join Chabad of the South Hills for its pre-High Holiday seniors’ lunch. Learn home safety tips from Comfort Keepers while enjoying lunch and honey cake. Wheelchair accessible. Pre-registration strongly suggested. 1 p.m. $5 suggested donation. 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com.

q FRIDAY, SEPT. 15

Chabad of Greenfield presents a Rosh Hashanah dinner. 7 pm. $25/adult; $18-/child; $100/family, max. Shadtreez Event Space. ChabadofGreenfield. com/highholidays.

q MONDAY, SEPT. 18

Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh First Person and Generations Speakers Series: A Talk by Holocaust survivor Oscar Singer with his daughter Lee Fischbach. 6 p.m. Free. hcofpgh.org/events.

q WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh welcomes back to Pittsburgh Tony McAleer, the subject of the documentary “The Cure for Hate” and a reformed white nationalist, for an enlightening conversation on how conspiracy theories begin, take root and how we can stop them. 6 p.m. Free. Chatham University. Woodland Road. hcofpgh.org/events. PJC

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

The quest for a rabbinic ‘beshert’ continues at Ohav Shalom

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

Aspiritual search is underway in the North Hills. Temple Ohav Shalom is working with the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a leadership organization within the Reform movement, to find a new rabbi.

Aaron Brauser, Ohav Shalom’s president, said that despite lacking a full-time rabbi since October, the congregation has persevered — largely to the credit of Grant Halasz, Ohav Shalom’s director of Ruach and Youth Engagement, and Andrea Guthrey, the congregation’s Religious School director.

“I can’t say enough praises for them. We are just over the moon with them,” Brauser said. “We feel very fortunate having the resources we have for the temple we are. With Grant and Andrea being full-time employees, it’s really filled some of the gaps. If we didn’t have those resources, it would be difficult to keep the religious school running and having services.”

Ohav Shalom’s previous rabbi, Jeremy Weissblatt, left the congregation in October. At the time, Brauser said there would not be a rush to make a quick hire.

“We want to get someone that understands the dynamic of what it’s like to raise a family where there’s not a lot of Jewish kids and families and can provide us that kind of beacon and leadership in the North Hills,” he told the Chronicle then. “We want to make sure we don’t just go for whatever’s out there. We’re going to work to find the best fit and, if we don’t find anyone, maybe there’s an option to hire an interim to bridge the gap until we find the right fit.”

Ohav Shalom remains committed to that mindset.

“We feel extremely fortunate,” Brauser said last week. “We are a very strong congregation. We are not just defined by a rabbi, and that really showed last year.”

Whereas Ohav Shalom staffers spent the last 10 months largely tending the spiritual load, another familiar face is joining the effort.

Rabbi Emily Meyer was retained on an interim basis to cover life cycle events, lead services once a month and officiate High Holidays at Ohav Shalom. Halasz will deliver cantorial support, Brauser said.

Meyer moved to Pittsburgh from Seattle in 2019 when her husband, Rabbi Aaron Meyer, became the spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel of South Hills.

After the holidays, Ohav Shalom’s search for a full-time rabbi will accelerate, Brauser said.

He is optimistic that a perfect match exists and cited recent demographics as evidence of the area’s appeal: “We are a very attractive place for a rabbi to come in. The North Hills is growing. The Jewish community in the North Hills is growing.”

Nine percent of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish community resides in the North Hills, according to a 2017 Jewish Community study conducted by Brandeis University and commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

U.S. Census Bureau findings noted recent growth in the North Hills.

Following a June release of census data, TribLive reported that “Cranberry Township in Butler saw 868 new residents and Pine Township increased by 601 people.” The figures demonstrate that “the region’s North Hills, which encompasses Northwest Allegheny County and Southern Butler County, continued to lead in population growth.”

Ohav Shalom’s history dates more than 50 years; since its inception, the congregation has been the only Reform congregation in the North Hills.

Brauser said he’s confident the congregation’s bright future includes finding its rabbinic beshert: “This is a good opportunity, and we don’t just want to settle.” PJC

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

p Bronze ark doors with decorative stone wall in Temple Ohav Shalom’s sanctuary

Photo by Kim Rullo

Israeli woman killed, man seriously wounded in terror shooting near Hebron

By Emanuel Fabian | The Times of Israel

An Israeli woman was shot dead and a man was seriously wounded in a terror attack close to the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday morning, the military and medics said.

The pair, both in their 40s, came under fire from a passing vehicle while driving on the Route 60 highway, close to the Beit Hagai junction south of Hebron, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the woman, initially listed in critical condition, was declared dead at the scene shortly afterward.

She was later named as Batsheva Nigri, a 42-year-old mother of three and a kindergarten teacher at the West Bank settlement of Beit Hagai, and a resident of nearby Efrat.

The wounded man was identified as Aryeh Leib, also in his 40s. He was rushed to Beersheba’s Soroka Hospital in serious condition but stabilized after undergoing surgery, medical officials said. Leib is a father of six who was en route to buy books for his children.

Nigri’s 12-year-old daughter was

in the car during the attack but was unharmed, MDA said.

The Nigris had been hitching a ride from Leib, who had also been heading to the Jerusalem area from the southern West Bank.

The vehicle was hit by at least 22 rounds, with another three bullet impacts found nearby, according to the military’s initial investigation.

IDF soldiers at a nearby post heard gunfire but did not immediately identify that an attack had occurred. By the time troops reached the scene, the terrorists had fled, according to the preliminary probe.

The IDF said it had launched a manhunt for the terrorists and closed off a number of roads in the area. The military encircled Hebron and was questioning Palestinians entering and leaving the city.

The IDF had been given a description of the suspected vehicle used by the gunmen to carry out the terror attack. The vehicle had no license plates and was believed to have fled toward the Hebron area.

Security forces later found a burnt-out vehicle near the Palestinian town of Halhul, which apparently matched the

description of the terrorists’ car.

Eulogizing the victim Nigri’s neighbor Hannah Zarichon told Channel 12, “Batsheva was a fun, happy woman” who was very active in the Efrat community, including as its volunteer youth coordinator, organizing many events for local residents. “She had an infectious laugh … and always volunteered with a huge smile.”

Nigri and her husband also served as foster parents to two young children, Zarichon said.

The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups praised the attack as a response to Israel’s expanding settlement enterprise in the West Bank, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was set to hold an assessment with top military and defense officials later Monday, his office said.

The attack came two days after a Palestinian terrorist killed two Israeli men, a father and son, while they were doing errands in the northern West Bank town of Huwara. Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir were shot to death at a car wash on Saturday afternoon.

Violence has surged across the West Bank over the past year and a half, with a rise in Palestinian shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, near-nightly

arrest raids by the military, and an uptick in revenge attacks by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians.

The IDF said Monday it was bolstering the West Bank with an additional infantry battalion and two companies, following the two recent deadly terror attacks.

The military said the additional forces would assist in the manhunts for the terrorists who carried out the attack near Hebron on Monday and the shooting in Huwara on Saturday.

The forces would also be tasked with carrying out guard duty in the area, as the military feared that the ongoing escalation in violence, mostly in the northern West Bank, could spread to its south.

Typically, the IDF’s West Bank division has 13 battalions. Over the past 18 months, that number has fluctuated amid an increase in Palestinian terror attacks, reaching a high of 26 battalions in October 2022. Following Monday’s deployment, there will be 23 battalions in the West Bank.

Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have left 29 people dead and several others seriously wounded since the beginning of the year, including in Monday’s shooting. PJC

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

p Batsheva Nigri, who was killed in a terrorist attack on Aug. 21

Courtesy photo via The Times of Israel

“Batsheva was a fun, happy woman” who was very active in the Efrat community, including as its volunteer youth coordinator, organizing many events for local residents. “She had an infectious laugh … and always volunteered with a huge smile.”

– HANNAH ZARICHON

Tel Aviv Light Rail opens to public on Aug. 18

After years of delays, the Tel Aviv Light Rail began running on Aug. 18, affording commuters a traffic-free ride in and around the congested metropolitan area, JNS.org reported.

The 15-mile Red Line, which runs through Tel Aviv connecting Bat Yam just south of the city to Petach Tikvah to its east, was green-lighted for operations earlier this month after all safety approvals were granted.

Originally set to begin operation nearly two years ago, the nearly $5 billion transportation project was repeatedly derailed by malfunctions, including, most significantly, in its signaling and emergency braking.

The line has 34 stations, including 10 underground stops, and runs from Bat Yam through Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan to Petach Tikvah. Half of the route goes through an underground tunnel.

The Tel Aviv Light Rail is scheduled to run Sunday to Thursday, 5:40 a.m. until midnight, and on Fridays until an hour and a half before Shabbat, with a train coming every three-and-a-half minutes during peak hours and every six minutes off-peak.

The system will not operate on Saturdays or Jewish holidays, drawing criticism and protests in the predominantly secular city and reigniting the debate over public transportation on the Sabbath in Tel Aviv.

Argentina’s shocking primary winner could become country’s first Jewish president

Argentina has never had a Jewish president. But that concept could move a step closer to reality after a general election in October, JTA.org reported.

That’s because on Aug. 13, the leading vote-getter in national primary elections was Javier Milei, a libertarian who wants to convert Argentina’s currency to the U.S. dollar and has made headlines for controversial comments on hot-button topics ranging from climate change to sex education.

He also wants to convert to Judaism.

In an interview with Spain’s El Pais last month, Milei said he is considering conversion. One of the obstacles getting in the way: observing Shabbat.

Milei, a 52-year-old economist who was raised Catholic and who leads the two-year-old La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) party, studies Jewish topics regularly with Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, who heads ACILBA, an ArgentineMoroccan Jewish community based in Buenos Aires.

Windows shattered at headquarters of German Holocaust Memorial Site Foundation

Police are seeking witnesses to a violent act of vandalism on Aug. 15 that destroyed windows at the headquarters of a German foundation that manages multiple Holocaust memorial sites, JTA.org reported.

The Foundation for Memorial Sites in Lower Saxony, in the town of Celle, oversees the memorials at the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the Wolfenbüttel Prison, a major Nazi execution site, as places of commemoration and learning.

Police told German news media that an unknown number of perpetrators tore an information board from the building’s outside wall and used it to smash the windows. Elke Gryglewski, the foundation’s executive director, told the NDR broadcasting company that charges were filed with the police.

Menachem Rosensaft, associate executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, who was born in the displaced person’s camp in Bergen-Belsen, said he was “appalled” by the attack, which he called “the latest in a spate of such vandalizations of German memorial centers and institutions devoted to Holocaust remembrance.”

Aug. 28, 1965 — Physicist Giulio Racah dies

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

Aug. 25, 1918 — Composer/ conductor Leonard Bernstein is born

Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein is born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He makes the first of several trips to Israel to conduct the future Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947.

Aug. 26, 1955 — Dulles outlines U.S. plan for Middle East Secretary of State

Physicist Giulio Racah dies at 56 during a visit to his birth city, Florence, Italy. His work on atomic spectroscopy earned himself and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem international recognition.

Aug. 29, 1897 — First Zionist Congress starts

Led by Theodor Herzl, the First Zionist Congress opens in Basel, Switzerland. It adopts the Basel Program, declaring that “Zionism aims at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in the Land of Israel.”

Aug. 30, 1987 — Cabinet halts

Lavi production

Saudi Arabia

appoints first Palestinian envoy as Saudi-Israel normalization talks continue

Saudi Arabia appointed its first-ever envoy to the Palestinian Authority on Aug. 12, amid ongoing negotiations with Israel and the United States about what would be a historic Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalization agreement, JTA.org reported.

Nayef Al-Sudairi, the Saudi envoy to Jordan, will now also serve as a “nonresident ambassador to the State of Palestine,” the Saudi foreign ministry announced.

Saudi Arabia and Israel have been in U.S.-brokered discussions for months about the potential for Saudi Arabia to join some of its other Arab neighbors in formally recognizing Israel and establishing diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have since 2020 signed agreements with Israel on trade, tourism, security and more under a framework known as the Abraham Accords.

Saudi Arabia has made it clear in negotiations that Israel would have to make concessions that could lead to a two-state solution. The oil-rich kingdom recognizes Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and it has historically maintained that it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved. PJC

p Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (right) meets with President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower Presidential Library

John Foster Dulles reveals an Eisenhower administration plan to launch covert peace talks, guarantee the borders of Israel and Arab states, and lend money to Israel to pay reparations to Arab refugees.

Aug. 27, 1892 — Jaffa-Jerusalem rail line opens

The first passenger train arrives in Jerusalem from Jaffa. Built with Belgian wood and English coal, the 53-mile Ottoman railroad line reduces the travel time from the Mediterranean port to the holy city from two days to four hours.

p Israel Aerospace Industries built five Lavi prototypes before the program was halted.

On a 12-11 vote, the Israeli Cabinet ends production of the Lavi fighter jet. The Lavi (“Young Lion”) was “doomed by cost overruns and by an agreement not to sell the aircraft to other countries.

Aug. 31, 2004 — Bus bombings in Beersheba kill 16 Israelis

Bombs explode on two buses 100 yards apart on Beersheba’s main street, Ranger Boulevard. Hamas claims credit for the attack, which kills 16 Israelis, including a 3-year-old, and injures 100 others. PJC

Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

Headlines

is protecting folks across Israel from attack. It’s a defensive system, but I think it’s an important one for security reasons.”

In 2021 the House approved $1 billion for the system. At the time, the measure passed 420 to 9, with eight Democrats and one Republican voting no.

Deluzio said that he will vote to fund the Iron Dome system if it comes up during his time in Congress.

“It’s an important system that protects people,” he said. “It’s defensive and proven very

This was the second time Deluzio visited Israel. He previously traveled there for personal reasons.

He said the country is experiencing a profound debate about democracy and the role of the courts, which is reflected in the population’s level of engagement and the breadth of the ongoing demonstrations. He hopes that Israel remains a strong, Jewish and democratic state.

“It’s important for our relationship in the Middle East,” he said.

Just as important, Deluzio said, are the ongoing efforts to negotiate additional Abraham Accords. He would like to see Saudi Arabia added to the agreements but acknowledged that

“I think it speaks to the potential for

Lee:

Continued from page 1

Lee continues to be endorsed by JStreetPAC, and members of J Street Pittsburgh are hosting a fundraiser on her behalf on Aug. 29.

In an email to J Street supporters, Nancy Bernstein, a cohost of the fundraiser, wrote, “During her time in office, Rep. Lee has been a champion of J Street’s core values and vision for justice, equality, peace, and democracy both at home and abroad. As a result of her leadership and outspokenness, she has become a top target for AIPAC’s vicious attacks claiming that she is anti-Israel and anti-America.

“This event will show Congresswoman Lee that the J Street and Pittsburgh community has her back.”

AIPAC fired back on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) last week: “Summer Lee boycotted Israel’s president, calls to condition lifesaving security aid, and aligns with Israel’s loudest critics. Now J Street is hosting fundraisers for her as ‘a champion of J Street’s core values.’”

In response to that post, Lee accused AIPAC of targeting her because she is Black and because of her progressive views. She wrote on X: “This is a right-wing bully group that supports actual insurrection, white supremacists…. They spend even more money insisting that anyone who doesn’t agree [with] their extreme right-wing views is a bigot.”

In another post, Lee wrote: “That’s the real reason they target and abuse me. Because the truth is they’re just an extremely wealthy white org that operates like so many others: they hate progressive, Black, and poor folks fighting for themselves, who they can’t control.”

She added: “To point out the obvious power dynamic gets us labeled antisemitic. It makes us

targets of dangerous and incredibly disingenuous attacks. It chills speech.”

Lee did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.

AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittman told the Chronicle that Lee’s accusations are baseless.

ultimate sense of Israeli and Palestinian safety there has to be a two-state solution, but the path forward is not easy.

“If I said I have the answer you shouldn’t believe me,” Deluzio said. “No one knows. I think we know in broad strokes what needs to happen. I heard discussions of borders and land swaps and settlements and so much more that we all know about. I have some hope and I’m optimistic we can find a path to peace that has dignity and respect and sovereignty for the Palestinian people and, of course, for

Chronicle to J Street’s FAQ section on its website and commented: “Congresswoman Lee is a JStreetPAC endorsee and meets our endorsement criteria. We’re proud to support her once again in the 2024 election cycle.”

Bernstein said she continues to support Lee because “she is a fierce advocate for democratic

eluzio, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said that he was glad he had the opportunity to take the trip.

“In my duty in Congress, we dive very deeply and care very deeply about our foreign policy, our defense posture, our security arrangements and agreements with our friends and allies,” he said. “This is an important part of my job to see things on the ground and understand circumstances in Israel and across the Middle East.” PJC

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

the 10.27 Healing Partnership.

Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for the United Democracy Project — the AIPACaffiliate — said that while UDP has not made any decisions yet about endorsements for the 2024 races, “we look at all the races where there are vehement anti-Israel candidates like Summer Lee very closely.”

“Summer Lee has established herself very quickly as a leading anti-Israel member of Congress and we think that’s counter to the views of most Democrats and President Biden,” Dorton added. “This is very much about policy. In nearly all the races that UDP was involved with in the last election cycle, we helped elect pro-Israel progressive women or candidates of color to Congress.”

“Summer Lee is outrageously attempting to distract attention from her consistently hostile record against Israel by making unfounded and scurrilous attacks against us,” Wittman said. “In fact, we proudly support pro-Israel progressives, including over half of the Congressional Black Caucus and Hispanic Caucus and almost half of the Progressive Caucus. We will continue to speak out and stay involved in the democratic process, and we will not be deterred from our efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship by anti-Israel forces.”

To be endorsed by JStreetPAC, a candidate must meet certain criteria, including “An Ironclad Commitment to Israel’s Security,” according to its website.

Tali deGroot, J Street’s national political director, did not respond to the Chronicle’s questions as to whether Lee’s votes on specific measures concerning Israel conformed to JStreetPAC’s endorsement criteria, or whether Lee’s absence from Herzog’s speech was aligned with that criteria. Instead, she referred the

values, both here and in Israel. And, you know, we don’t always agree on everything, but those values are the things that actually help us to choose candidates.”

Speaking on her own behalf, and not for JStreetPAC, Bernstein said Lee is “an advocate for Israeli peace and security.”

Bernstein cited Lee’s “commitment to better the district she serves,” and her “deep values related to democracy, human and civil rights.” She said she and Lee share similar values, such as “the idea that addressing poverty inequality actually can address the root causes of racism and antisemitism, because when people feel insecure, they’re more susceptible to messages that offer ‘simple’ answers to their predicament. So, of course educating people also about the persistence of racism and antisemitism, and how they show up in our society, is also hugely important.”

Bernstein also stressed Lee’s support for the Tree of Life rebuilding project, and her efforts to secure federal funding for that project and for

Earlier this month, Jewish Insider reported that Bhavini Patel, an Edgewood councilmember, is planning to challenge Lee in the primary.

Patel declined to comment on her plans.

“Right now, my energy is dedicated to amplifying the voices and aspirations of our diverse community,” she told the Chronicle. “As a woman of color and the child of immigrants, ensuring that everyone is seen, heard, and valued is my driving force. My involvement spans addressing urgent concerns like gun violence and collaborating with communities, as seen in my engagement with the Indian American community at the Hindu Jain Temple.

“My commitment lies in uniting people, fostering support and creating positive change,” she continued. “From infrastructure improvements to policies that boost the economy, my goal is to uplift the working individuals in our region. I am deeply passionate about representing the interests of our district’s residents and standing up for their needs.” PJC

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

p U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and other House members toured an Iron Dome site on a recent trip to Israel Photo courtesy of the Office of Congressman Chris Deluzio

p U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio was among 23 House members on a tour of Israel

Photo courtesy of the Office of Congressman Chris Deluzio

“Summer Lee has established herself very quickly as a leading anti-Israel member of Congress and we think that’s counter to the views of most Democrats and President Biden.”

– PATRICK DORTON

Fraud, betrayal and spy gear: Inside the messy battle for Chabad of Poway

By Louis Keene | Forward

Aseven-hour mediation. A secret recording device. Accusations of extortion. These are the latest twists in the ongoing, ugly saga over control of the Southern California synagogue that survived a 2019 mass shooting only to face a federal fraud conviction of its founding rabbi.

A year after that rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, was released from prison, the future of the synagogue, Chabad of Poway, remains hotly contested. Denying persistent accusations that he is trying to reinstate his father and evading financial oversight, Goldstein’s son, Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, refuses to yield to the demands of the Hasidic movement’s West Coast leadership that he step aside.

An Aug. 8 letter obtained by the Forward describes a contentious day-long hearing of a Chabad “court” the week prior that included veiled threats and the discovery of a fountain pen outfitted with spy gear.

The hearing called by Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, head of Chabad’s West Coast operations, was purportedly intended to resolve a yearlong stalemate over the younger Goldstein’s refusal to step down from the Poway pulpit, which he took over before the investigation against his father was made public. Cunin ultimately affirmed Goldstein’s firing by a lower-level Chabad leader, a decision three Chabad sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said has been appealed to the movement’s top court in New York.

The letter reveals a shocking level of discord, distrust and deception between the Goldsteins and their supporters and the longstanding leaders of Chabad in California — and sets up a showdown between Chabad’s West Coast leadership and the movement’s headquarters in Crown Heights.

The July meeting aimed to settle three ongoing disputes between the Goldsteins and San Diego Chabad leadership: Mendel Goldstein’s status as shliach, or emissary, of Chabad of Poway; control of the Friendship Circle of San Diego, a charity spun off from the synagogue; and the oversight of both organizations. Also discussed was whether Mendel Goldstein was trying to engineer his father’s return to the synagogue, and whether the son knew of the father’s crimes before his arrest.

But the meeting was derailed — according to the letter and two people who attended the hearing but spoke on the condition of anonymity — by Cunin’s realization that a fountain pen left on his table by Goldstein’s representative, Rabbi Meir Kessler, was actually a recording device in disguise.

Kessler declined to comment.

Cunin, who has grown Chabad to more than 200 outposts across California and Nevada since he became its West Coast chief in 1965, did not respond to an interview request. In the letter, Cunin said that Kessler mentioned “multiple times” during the meeting that the family intended to reinstate Yisroel Goldstein to the pulpit, something Cunin said was “entirely unacceptable for obvious reasons.”

that its representatives raised the plausibility of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein reinstated [sic] as the rabbi of Chabad of Poway,” Goldstein wrote in a text message to the Forward. “We firmly believe that differences that may arise between rabbis ought to be arbitrated and or adjudicated at the appropriate venues, and the press is not one of those.”

How we got here

Yisroel Goldstein, 62, was one of four people shot, one fatally, during Passover services at the shul in 2019. In July 2020, he pleaded guilty to fraud charges as part of a sprawling conspiracy that led to the convictions of a dozen people, including Goldstein’s brother; the rabbi of Chabad of UC-San Diego; and a few Chabad of Poway members.

According to Goldstein’s plea agreement, he used the synagogue and the Friendship Circle in multimillion-dollar tax- and grant-fraud schemes, pouring the ill-gotten funds into a lavish estate. He was sentenced to 14 months in a medium-security federal facility in New York but was remanded to home confinement after three due to pandemic efforts to reduce prison populations. That confinement ended in January, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Goldstein’s sons, Mendel and Shuie, respectively, took over the synagogue and the Friendship Circle when their father retired in November 2019 — months before his crimes became public. When the FBI and IRS announced Goldstein’s guilty plea in July 2020, Chabad banished him from the movement.

Some members of the synagogue left, and people involved with the Friendship

Circle demanded its separation from the shul. A volunteer independent board tried to bring transparency and accountability to the shul’s finances but disbanded after a year, following Mendel Goldstein’s refusal to separate Friendship Circle as an entity. Mendel Goldstein’s father-in-law became the synagogue’s chief financial officer.

That led Rabbi Yonah Fradkin, who oversees a dozen Chabad outposts in the San Diego area, to propose installing a second rabbi, a move Mendel Goldstein rejected. Fradkin then demanded Goldstein’s resignation.

Shuie Goldstein, meanwhile, left the Friendship Circle last year with a severance estimated at about $145,000.

Seven hours, many accusations

During the hearing, according to Cunin’s account, Fradkin accused Mendel Goldstein of insubordination, citing an April 2022 letter in which Goldstein said that all Chabad of Poway matters would be “conducted and managed exclusively within the current governing structure without any external interference.”

Goldstein’s “refusal to cooperate apparently became well-known in the community,” Cunin wrote, “and, in Rabbi Fradkin’s view, continues to tarnish and undermine Chabad locally as well as throughout the region.”

Kessler, meanwhile, said at the hearing that the Goldsteins would reject any outcome that did not grant them full control of all Chabad of Poway properties in perpetuity, according to Cunin’s letter, which said that Kessler also expressed the family’s intent to ultimately reinstate Yisroel Goldstein as a shliach. Cunin noted that email correspondences preceding the meeting from Mendel Goldstein’s side had copied Yisroel as a recipient, a claim the Forward verified.

The claim that Mendel intends to reinstate his father was questioned by Steve Arnold,

Chabad of Poway’s security director. In an interview, Arnold said that Mendel Goldstein has inquired about whether Yisroel’s presence at synagogue events might offend anyone, qualifying: “‘As long as there’s one congregant that would be upset, it just won’t happen.’”

Cunin, who was acting as a kind of arbitrator in the hearing, was himself involved in a federal investigation a decade ago. A judge ruled in 2014 that Chabad of California misappropriated about $272,495 in federal grants for security cameras, instead spending the money on payroll and utilities. The organization was fined $850,000 but nobody was charged criminally.

At the hearing, according to Cunin’s account, Kessler threatened to expose Fradkin — who is related to Cunin through marriage — for committing unnamed crimes. Cunin said he reprimanded Kessler in the meeting for mesirah — turning over a fellow Jew to authorities — and that Cunin’s lawyer, Seth Gerber, who was present at the meeting for unclear reasons, called the threats “extortion.”

It is unclear what Kessler might have been referring to. But court documents in the Yisroel Goldstein say that a person with the initials Y.F. accepted a donation of a nonexistent Iranian Torah, valuing it at $1.2 million, sharing the proceeds of the write-off with the donor. The person is described as a “director of a separate religious congregation and community organization in San Diego.” Y.F. was never charged or identified by the authorities.

Fradkin did not respond to a request for comment.

Spy gear

Then there is the matter of the spy pen.

While Cunin was meeting with Rabbi Fradkin and his associate, Rabbi Moshe Lieberman, they noticed that Kessler had left a fountain pen on the table.

“Lieberman lifted the pen,” Cunin wrote, “unscrewed the bottom part of the pen, and showed me that instead of an ink cartridge, there were the electronic components of a covert transmitter/listening device.”

Kessler rushed over and grabbed the device, Cunin said. When asked to hand it over, Kessler instead destroyed it. Cunin wrote that Mendel Goldstein “confirmed he was aware” of the device and refused to disavow it.

“Although Rabbi Kessler claimed he did not record anything, Rabbi Kessler’s refusal to hand over the device to confirm no recordings were made — and his subsequent destruction of the device — belies his assertions,” Cunin wrote.

In the end, Cunin upheld Goldstein’s termination, instructing all parties to “facilitate a smooth transition for Chabad of Poway to move forward,” and ruled that the transfer of Friendship Circle was conducted properly.

That ruling has been appealed, however, and three Chabad sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that while Cunin is widely respected in the Chabad world, Goldstein has a sympathetic ear in national leadership. PJC

This story was originally published in the Forward.

p Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein in 2012 Photo by Sarah Biggart, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial: A reporter reflects

Reporter’s Notebook David Rullo

Heels click and echo on the walk across the first floor of the Joseph F. Weis Jr. U.S. Courthouse. The journey from the doors of the elevator across the building to the media room feels long and significant.

It was disorienting the first time I made the trek, to hear the lawyer’s opening statements in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter trial. I had just made my way through a metal detector as my belongings were searched by hand and an X-ray machine. I had to remove my belt and throw out my opened water bottle. When one of the federal guards asked what media outlet I was with and I mentioned the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, he looked away. There was a silent acknowledgment, a little added weight.

The media room itself — a cafeteria retrofitted with two large screens that broadcast the events unfolding in Judge Robert Colville’s courtroom — was bright and usually housed about a dozen journalists. Those populating the tables included reporters from media outlets of all sizes, both local and national.

The atmosphere lent a camaraderie among the journalists, especially as the trial continued through the first half of the summer. If a detail was missed by one reporter, he or she would simply ask a question aloud and someone would shout an answer. Many of these writers, at least those working for Pittsburgh outlets, knew one another from covering breaking stories together. The writers of the Pittsburgh Union Progress with whom we collaborated — striking workers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — had relationships with many

others in the room. The Chronicle writers were the outliers.

And yet, we were also the ones who bore the knowledge — and the weight — of a community. Whenever there was a question in the media room about Jewish Pittsburgh, we supplied answers. When photos were shown and 911 calls played, it was the Chronicle writers who answered questions and who were watched by other journalists for reaction. It was a heavy responsibility.

in the South Hills. My congregation is in the South Hills, and we used to prop open our door on Shabbat for people to enter for Torah study. All these details put the shooter’s proximity to me too close for comfort. I was a hair’s breadth, and yet a lifetime away, from the violence. The most violent antisemitic attack in U.S. history didn’t occur in my backyard, but I still had to process that it might have and file a story as these details were made public.

terror visited on Jewish Pittsburgh. We were the link to information they desperately needed to hear.

I am still troubled by what I heard and saw during the trial. I never before had a problem with sleep, but after the trial’s first day I began waking up consistently at 3 a.m. I still do. A subtle darkness sometimes settles into my dreams. I’m not prone to nightmares, but my dreams now are often filled with a darkness that wasn’t there before the trial. When at public events, I check for the exits and the quickest routes in and out of buildings.

I am not a victim of Oct. 27, 2018. I wasn’t in the Tree of Life building the day of the massacre. My family was not directly injured by the attack. But I did chronicle it.

When specific facts came out during the trial that we did not know previously, the Chronicle’s writers processed the information in real time. Some of it we internalized (and did not include in our articles because of the trauma it would inflict on our community) while writing daily stories and providing context for other reporters. Occasionally we explained to the other reporters the “Jewish angle” of what was being discussed.

The testimony often became personal. I was horrified to learn the convicted killer considered the South Hills Jewish Community Center as a target. At the time of the attack, I was an employee of South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh. I worked in that building. The murderer worked — and lived — at Potomac Bakery; my home is blocks from the storefront. The killer lived

Unlike many other reporters in the media room, there was no distance between the Chronicle’s editorial staff and the synagogue shooting. Some of us live near the Tree of Life building, others knew the victims, survivors or their families. Our team is part of the community that the killer targeted. At the same time, we were tasked with chronicling the trial of the perpetrator, in as fair a way as possible.

Our days didn’t end at 5 p.m. and our workweeks didn’t end on Fridays. Community members know our faces. They asked about the trial in grocery store checkout lines and mall parking lots. They reached out in emails. We shared Shabbat dinners and services with friends who wanted to know the details — not out of some voyeuristic desire, but because they were afraid and appalled at the

— LETTERS —

Those who argued against a trial for the synagogue shooter were wrong

It has been three weeks since the final verdict of the synagogue shooting trial, and this is a response to those who told us — the families of those who lost loved ones or who were injured (and in some cases, both) at the Tree of Life building on Oct, 27, 2018 — that there should not have been a trial at all and that we should have accepted a plea deal.

You came up with several different reasons to avoid a trial: Pursuing the death penalty would be a disaster; it would create ongoing trauma; a trial would allow the perpetrator to espouse his beliefs in public; it wouldn’t bring closure; most Jews are not in favor of the death penalty; to hope for the death sentence is vengeful; and so on. You were wrong in so many ways.

Let me be clear that these are my own opinions, but they are based on observations and relations with other family members at the courthouse. I was there nearly every day, and spent almost all of my time with the families of the victims and the witnesses and survivors. I was there to hear all the excruciating 911 calls, to listen to the witnesses and experts from both sides, to hear the direct questioning and the cross-examination, to hear opening statements and closing arguments. I’ll admit that I did not look at the graphic images of the deceased, but I heard the descriptions. And I was there to see the actions and demeanor of the defendant, and the defense team’s coddling of him. It is my belief that unless you were there to hear, see and evaluate all the evidence, your opinion on whether a sentence of death is warranted cannot be viewed as well-informed.

I am not going to disclose private conversations within the family/survivor group, but having the trial was much more of a benefit than a detriment, and I never sensed that it caused more trauma. The trial was not a disaster — unless you are referring to the defendant and the defense team. Our family’s decision to support the government to seek a death sentence was not based on vengeance; it was based on wanting justice. Any suggestion that

it was anything other than that is insulting.

And, for the last four years — the amount of time I’ve worked at the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle — I have dealt with the aftermath. I have put my fingers in bullet holes and recognized what it can mean when soiled pieces of carpet are removed from a synagogue. I have heard details I never wanted to know. I’ve received emails from one white supremacist who used the trial as a way to promote his mission while sometimes calling for lone wolf violence.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle’s editorial team has spoken in depth with victims and their families; we’ve carefully pondered how to present stories no community should ever have to tell.

In Israel, after a terrorist attack, they clean up the debris and get back to work. In Pittsburgh, things move more slowly. But eventually, for many, the scars of Oct. 27, 2018, will fade as the massacre gets relegated to the annals of history.

For me, for the staff of the Chronicle, I don’t expect that to happen. Some scars are too deep. PJC

We understand that an execution may take years, and that there will be appeals, but the shooter will be in the worst possible prison conditions on death row, without the liberties he would be afforded in other prisons placed in the general population. And for those who say there is opposition to capital punishment among Jews, simply take a look at the results of the poll question in the Aug. 11 edition of Chronicle, where 83% of respondents said they feel that a sentence of death was the appropriate verdict.

Plain and simple, the jury weighed all the evidence and they followed the law. The system worked and they got it right. That’s what we should want and expect in our country.

Ron Wedner Pittsburgh

Outstanding synagogue trial coverage

This is just a short paragraph that is long on gratitude to the entire Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle staff for its dedicated, accurate and unbiased coverage of the recent synagogue shooting trial that concluded on Aug. 3, 2023. Many reporters from both the Chronicle and the Pittsburgh Union Progress came together in a very professional manner by working in tandem in order to provide the public with in-depth and comprehensive coverage within the pages of the Chronicle. This unique collaboration proved to be a huge and effective winner in helping to provide a more complete record of the trial itself and its impact on the community into perpetuity. I am truly grateful.

Marc A. Simon Washington, Pennsylvania

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

When one of the federal guards asked what media outlet I was with and I mentioned the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, he looked away. There was a silent acknowledgement, a little added weight.

Chronicle poll results: Safety downtown

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you have safety concerns when you go downtown?” Of the 247 people who responded, 50% said yes; 33% said no; 14% said they don’t go downtown; and 3% said they weren’t sure. Comments were submitted by 67 people. A few follow.

Concerns don’t stop plans, but I do pay more attention downtown than in other neighborhoods.

How can you not when the news is constantly reporting that downtown is experiencing safety problems?

Downtown Pittsburgh is a cesspool of crime, drugs and homeless people urinating and defecating in the streets. Mayor Gainey has said many times that “homelessness is not a crime.” That may be, but it sure breeds crime all around it. It’s time for the mayor to step up and do something.

We go downtown very frequently. It’s very important for our safety to see police in their car, on bicycles and walking the streets. When we visit New

Letters:

Do you have safety concerns when you go downtown?

We have stopped going downtown due to safety concerns. It’s time to clean up downtown and make it safe again.

I’m frequently downtown and have never been concerned about my safety. My concerns are with absentee or disinterested building owners, whose street-level presence is an embarrassment. This makes it more welcoming to homeless folks to camp out and use as a restroom.

things can help those of us who have trouble getting around if the sidewalks and street crossings aren’t also taken care of.

I recently had to wait for a ride at night on Liberty Avenue after an event downtown. I was overwhelmed by the kindness shown to me by the strangers who reached out to help me with my limited mobility. I know there are bad actors in this area, but most people are good at heart.

York City’s Times Square, there is a huge police presence, and Pittsburgh needs to do exactly the same thing to deter crime. We can never let the criminals take over our beautiful city.

JAA’s disregard of kashrut is ‘outrageous’

Continued from page 12

Jewish law was G-d’s will dictated to Moses and written in the Torah for generations to learn, absorb and adhere to forever. Kashrut is an example of some of these laws which were given to keep the Jewish people healthy and safe in G-d’s hands for all times. That the Jewish Association on Aging has decided to reinterpret, disregard or choose which laws to observe is arrogant, absurd and outrageous (“JAA to offer non-kosher meal option at Weinberg Terrace, AHAVA Memory Care,” Aug. 18). I will not support such an agency.

Thelma (Tammy) Blumenfeld Monroeville

Disappointed with JAA

To my way of thinking, a Jewish organization like the Jewish Association on Aging must represent the community by using its resources to unite all of the Jewish people it serves in the highest standards of tradition and holiness (“JAA to offer non-kosher meal option at Weinberg Terrace, AHAVA Memory Care,” Aug. 18).

For many years, that was the philosophy of JAA — to provide a quality Jewish experience to the residents. It saddens and disappoints me to see the JAA downgrading that standard and segregating residents to save money.

To be kosher means to be set apart. Unfortunately, JAA’s recent decision has compromised that ideal.

Rabbi Eli Seidman Pittsburgh

Weinberg Terrace headline is disingenuous

The headline “JAA to offer non-kosher meal option at Weinberg Terrace” (Aug. 18) is disingenuous. It is clear from the article that the option is kosher food, and that the standard is now non-kosher. While it is well known that the “J” left the JAA (Jewish Association on Aging) a long time ago, I expect more from a news source. The article did strive to provide a balanced view, but the headline and lead are very misleading. A newspaper should not merely present the PR spin given to them by an organization.

Jason Small Pittsburgh

Former JAA officer opposes decision on non-kosher food

As the former first vice president of the Jewish Association on Aging, I strongly oppose the JAA’s decision to offer non-kosher meals along with kosher meals (“JAA to offer non-kosher meal option at Weinberg Terrace, AHAVA Memory Care,” Aug. 18). It goes against its original charter, which established that any Jew could feel comfortable in this setting. In addition, Weinberg Terrace will no longer have a kosher kitchen, which makes no sense since many residents came there for kosher meals.

Instead, their meals will be sent to them in double-wrapped cellophane (just like airplane

I used to enjoy going downtown when it was very easy for me to walk around Kaufmann’s to look at the holiday windows, cross streets and jump off and on buses. I now walk with a quad cane, and I’m not sure if I can actually walk downtown! I know most of the concern these days is about homeless people and shootings, but I hope some attention is also paid to ensuring that sidewalks are accessible to those using canes, walkers, wheelchairs and scooters, and crossing streets is safe for those of us with mobility challenges. Homeless shelters can help us with those living on the streets, and better gun laws might lower the number of shootings — but none of those

We still go downtown, and our concerns aren’t excessive or paranoid, but realistic.

We live in an overwhelmingly pleasant and safe city. U.S. national crime rates are down significantly over the last 30 years. Our obligation as Jews is to love our neighbor and to care for them, not fear them. PJC

Compiled by Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question: Should Jewish senior care facilites serve kosher food exclusively? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC

food). How will this food be kept hot or cold? The JAA, during a five-year period, has eliminated Charles Morris, the only Jewish nursing home; shut down Weinberg Village, a personal care facility for residents who needed extra help; and is now eliminating exclusive kosher meals for their residents — all for cost-saving measures.

Residents will not be offered, ham, pork or shellfish. The menu will be the same. That being the case, then serving less expensive non-kosher food is being done to save a few bucks and make a profit.

Jeffrey Weinberg Pittsburgh

Why does J Street continue to support Summer Lee?

I see where local J Street is holding a fundraiser for Congresswoman Summer Lee (“AIPAC, J Street and Summer Lee wrangle over 2024 District 12 race,” online Aug. 21; this issue, Page 1). Wow.

In less than a year Ms. Lee has repeatedly and cheerfully aligned herself with the “Squad” and the anti-Israel wing of the extreme left. Along with Rashida Talib and Ilhan (“all about the Benjamins”) Omar, Lee has:

• Snubbed the (center-left) president of Israel when he addressed Congress.

• Voted against a mom-and-apple-pie resolution honoring the U.S.-Israel relationship on Israel’s 75th birthday (the bill passed 401-19).

• Cosponsored a bill that would restrict aid to Israel.

• Voted against establishing a special envoy for the Abraham Accords within the Department of State (the bill passed 413-13).

Lest you think that she’s an outlier solely on Israel, Lee was the only Western Pennsylvania member of Congress to vote against raising the debt ceiling.

Rep. Lee also continues to boycott the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle — the newspaper of record for our community.

Officially, J Street claims to support much of the above. Why do they raise money for Squad member Lee and withhold their endorsement from rival progressive Democrat party candidates who also support Israel?

Weiss Pittsburgh

invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail or

Life & Culture

Cod is good — especially with saffron

— FOOD —

By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

This recipe for cod poached in a velvety tomato and saffron broth is heaven for my senses. It has the beautiful flavors of bouillabaisse-saffron, tomatoes, white wine and garlic — but it’s kosher!

The fish is poached in the tomato broth and makes a beautiful fish course or main meal. Saffron is one of my favorite spices. It has a bit of an umami flavor, although it is hard to describe the taste of saffron to one who has not tried it. It’s floral but earthy, and it elevates any food it’s added to. There is definitely an “unknown” flavor and textural change to tomato broth when saffron is added, and it’s absolutely divine.

The fish looks beautiful prepared this way, but my favorite part of eating it is using a fresh, crunchy baguette to sop up the leftover sauce on my plate.

I like to add thinly sliced potatoes to the pot when making this as a main meal, but I suggest trying it first without the potatoes to see how you like it.

Cod in saffron tomato broth

Serves 4 as a fish course or 2 as the main dish. Can be doubled for a crowd.

Ingredients

1 pound fresh cod fillet, either fresh or frozen

½ of a sweet onion, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pareve chicken-flavored bouillon cube or 1 tablespoon of Osem consommé

1 cup boiled water

1 ½ cups dry white wine

1 pinch of saffron, about ½ teaspoon loosely measured, not packed

2 teaspoons red pepper: choose either Aleppo pepper, red pepper flakes,

cayenne pepper or a Spanish paprika

1 14-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes

3-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 large or 2 smaller bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced in ¼ inch rounds

Rinse the (fully thawed) cod under cool water and pat it dry with paper towels.

If using one larger piece of cod, cut it into 4 squarish pieces and sprinkle it with kosher salt to taste. Boil a cup of water.

Place one pareve chicken-flavored bouillon cube or one tablespoon of Osem consommé into a bowl and pour the boiling water over the top. Stir and let the bouillon dissolve into the water. Set aside.

Peel and thinly slice half of an onion.

Over medium heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a wide, low pot that has a well-fitting lid.

When warm, add the onions, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until soft but not browned. If the onions seem to be browning or burning, turn down the heat.

Stir in a nice pinch of saffron, your choice of red pepper and the thinly sliced garlic to the onions. The pepper adds a gentle warmth to the dish.

C hoose your favorite pepper. Mine is Aleppo.

Stir constantly for 1 minute until fragrant, but avoid burning the garlic.

Pour dry white wine over the mixture. Allow it to come to a gentle boil for 3-4 minutes. The wine will deglaze the pan; cooking it down for a few minutes will allow the alcohol to dissipate. Add the can of tomatoes, bouillon mixture and bay leaf.

Allow it to simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes.

G ently add the cod pieces to the broth. Use a spoon to make a well for each piece of fish and scoop a little broth over each piece.

C over and cook for 10 minutes at a minimum temperature of 165 F.

Turn off the heat and allow the fish to rest covered for 15 minutes before tasting it, then add salt and pepper to taste.

This dish can be made ahead of time and heated in the oven at 300 F, but be careful not to overcook/overheat the fish for the best result.

The flavors of this dish become more complex if it is made a few hours before serving, and it holds up well overnight.

To make this as a main dish with potatoes, add the potatoes into the pot after the first step, when the onions have been cooking for 10 minutes. Stir the potatoes and onions for 5 minutes, just to get the potatoes nicely coated with olive oil, then remove the potatoes to another bowl. Add them back into the pot when you add the tomatoes to the wine and saffron broth.

Cook the potatoes uncovered in the broth for about 25 minutes, until forktender, then add the fish into the pot to cook per the instructions above.

If the liquid looks dry, you can add a little water, starting in half-cup increments. The heat should be high enough to make a bubbling simmer, but not so high that it reduces all of the broth.

This makes a great one-pot dish and a light but filling meal. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

p Cod in saffron tomato broth

Photo by Jessica Grann

Life & Culture

Pittsburgh artist retells the binding of Isaac, with a Sephardi gloss

— BOOKS —

By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

Aclassic Jewish story is getting some new ink. The biblical binding of Isaac and near human sacrifice committed by his father, Abraham, now appears in comic book form. Illustrated by Ben Schachter, a professor of digital art at Saint Vincent College, “Binder Bound and the Mizbeyach” recounts the tale of Genesis 22 in which God orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, in Moriah, on an unnamed mountain.

According to the text, after binding his son to an altar, Abraham nears completion of the divine command. An angel of God, however, calls out to Abraham and orders cessation of the oblation. A ram appears caught in a nearby thicket. Abraham retrieves the ram and sacrifices it in Isaac’s stead.

Countless elucidations — spanning faiths and disciplines — have parsed the biblical narrative.

Schachter, 49, told the Chronicle his illustrations build on a medieval Sephardic interpretation.

Around the 12th century, Yehudah ben Shmuel ibn Abbas, of Morocco, composed “Et Shaare Ratson.” The piyyut (liturgical poem), whose chorus invokes a remembrance of “the binder, the bound and the altar” is sung Rosh Hashanah morning, before shofar blowing by Sephardi, Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jews, according to Jewish educator Rabbi Stephen Belsky.

Schachter said he was intrigued both by the poem and its placement within the service.

After Abraham ties Isaac to the altar, a passage details Isaac’s concern for his mother, Sarah, and thoughts about the knife and forthcoming act:

“Please sharpen it, father, and my bonds / Strengthen, and burn the fire in my flesh / Take with you that which remains from my ashes /

And tell Sarah ‘This is Isaac’s perfume.’”

“Isaac’s perspective grabbed me,” Schachter said. “It turned the story on its head. The protagonist was always Abraham, who was most devout, and here the sacrifice becomes the protagonist.”

After studying the poem, Schachter attended a Sephardi service on Rosh Hashanah in 2022.

Listening to the piyyut, whose final stanza beseeches God to “remember the stormtossed and afflicted congregation” and hear the shofar’s calls, “just made a real connection,” Schachter said.

He hopes his comic book has a similar effect.

Available at jewce.org, “Binder Bound and the Mizbeyach” includes more than 30 pages of illustrations, excerpted Midrashic interpretations on Genesis 22 and the entire “Et Shaare Ratson.”

Including “original texts” is critical, Schachter said: “People can go back and forth between the pictures and the words and see what I’ve done, and see the back and forth between the pictures and the original.”

For decades, Schachter has enjoyed similar interplays. His work enables readers and viewers to reimagine their relationship to classic Jewish texts and items. In 2020, he illustrated and drafted “Akhnai Pizza,” a graphic novel about the oven of Akhnai. Schachter retold the Talmudic dispute by placing the events in modern-day Pittsburgh.

Ten years earlier, he worked on a series of paintings depicting identifiable boundaries, used primarily by Orthodox Jews, that permit carrying on the Sabbath. Schachter’s “Eruv Maps” received global attention from museums, galleries and writers.

In each of his artistic undertakings, Schachter finds a deep personal connection.

“I visualize and imagine lots of things. That is part of my personality in how I engage the world,” he said.

He plans to share more, both in print and as part of an upcoming panel. On Nov. 11-12, the Pittsburgher will join fellow artists at the Jewish Comics

Experience in New York City at the Center for Jewish History.

From there, he plans to continue another illustrated project — the legend of Pardes. According to rabbinic literature, four first-century rabbis visited a figurative orchard (Pardes) of Jewish study. Only one of the scholars emerged safely.

Schacter’s excited to bring the classic saga to fruition.

“It’s going to be a psychological portrait of four rabbis in comic form,” he said. PJC

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

Cover of "Binder Bound and the Mizbeyach," courtesy of Ben Schachter

Images from "Binder Bound and the Mizbeyach," courtesy of Ben Schachter

Bella Abzug documentary aims to restore the Jewish congresswoman’s trailblazing legacy

By Shira Li Bartov | JTA

Bella Abzug, the feminist who burst into Congress battling for equal rights in 1970, was often caricatured in the media of her time. She was labeled “belligerent” and “bellicose Bella” in newspapers, parodied on television and shamed for everything from her body to her Jewishness to her signature widebrimmed hats.

In just six years as a New York representative, Abzug demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, wrote legislation to protect the environment and fought discrimination against women, LGBTQ people and Black Americans. But five decades later, her name is far less known than those of some of her peers in the second wave feminist movement — such as journalist Gloria Steinem and “The Feminine Mystique” author Betty Friedan.

Jeff L. Lieberman hopes to finally pay her due with his documentary “Bella!,” which opened in New York City and Los Angeles theaters last week. Lieberman interviewed several women in politics and the arts who credit Abzug with blazing a path for them to follow, even though their names are more famous than hers: Steinem, Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters are a few of the heavy hitters.

Lieberman started learning about Jewish feminists as a child in Vancouver, Canada — and not only from his mother, who became the family’s earner while his father assumed household duties in the 1980s. Their shelves were lined with books by Jewish feminists such as Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Anita Diamant. They sang songs by Debbie Friedman and proudly watched Steinem on the news. Yet Abzug’s name was hardly mentioned, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“Looking back on it, she should have been this huge Jewish hero for all of us — a Jewish woman in Congress who was really sticking it to the institution,” said Lieberman, whose previous documentaries include “The Amazing Nina Simone” and “Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria.” “Had the press been more fair and less misogynistic, we probably would have known Bella throughout a lot of Jewish households in the ‘80s. But because she was cast as a slightly odd figure, yelling with a hat, we didn’t really know her. ”

Abzug’s Jewish upbringing was central to the development of her progressive politics, according to Leandra Zarnow, who is interviewed in the documentary and wrote “Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug.”

Abzug was born to Russian-Jewish immigrants in the Bronx in July 1920, one month before women won the right to vote. As a child, she was looked after by her grandfather Wolf Taklefsky, an Orthodox Jew who took her to synagogue and loved showing off her aptitude for learning Hebrew.

“At the core, Bella Abzug was fueled by a sense of commitment to ‘tikkun olam,’ the

idea of repairing the world,” Zarnow told JTA. “All of her elders really instilled in her that she needed to do unto others better than done unto her, so her social justice and her ethical core really were fired by that idea.”

When Abzug was in junior high in the early 1930s, she became involved in Hashomer Hatzair, a Labor Zionist youth movement with the Marxist ideal of a binational Jewish-Arab worker state. At 12 years old, she was already so enraptured by political organizing that she disobeyed her father’s curfew to make her first speeches at New York City subway stops.

“In the 1960s and ‘70s, Bella Abzug is very much an ally to the Black Power movement and other types of ethnic nationalist movements, because of the fact that she came into her politics and her own sense of self-determination through Hashomer Hatzair,” said Zarnow.

Abzug’s father died unexpectedly when she was 13. She decided to say Kaddish for him, a mourning prayer traditionally recited by male children for 11 months after a loved one’s death. Abzug had no male siblings and did not hesitate to take over the prayer every day at the front of her Orthodox synagogue.

“They looked askance at me for doing that,” Abzug said in a recording played in the documentary. “Nobody embraced me, no one said ‘how wonderful’ or helped me. I sort of stood there by myself, isolated… And it was in

those early days behind the curtain [separating men and women in Orthodox synagogues] that I probably got my first ideas of feminism.”

Before running for office, Abzug was for 25 years a lawyer focused on defending the rights of labor union workers, Black Americans and individuals targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. Facing sexism as a young attorney, Abzug started wearing her trademark floppy hats to distinguish that she was not anyone’s secretary.

In one of her best-known cases, she defended Willie McGee, a Black man who was accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi and sentenced to death in 1945. The all-white, all-male jury presented a guilty verdict in two-and-a-half minutes.

The case took an enormous personal toll. In Jackson, where McGee was tried, a local newspaper wrote that “they should burn Willie McGee’s white woman lawyer along with him in the electric chair.” Abzug traveled to Jackson at eight months pregnant and found that no hotel would let her stay. Fear struck her when a taxi driver said he knew a place “far from town” where he was prepared to take her. She spent that night in a bus station bathroom, where she miscarried, before appearing in court the next morning.

She won a stay of execution, but the U.S.

Supreme Court refused to hear McGee’s final appeal. He was killed in an electric chair in 1951.

n 1961, Abzug co-founded Women Strike for Peace, which drew about 50,000 women to the streets to protest the testing of nuclear weapons. The group helped push a nuclear test ban treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, and it later shifted its ocus to ending the Vietnam War.

Abzug then won a seat in Congress at age 50 in 1970, becoming one of only 12 women in the 435-member House of Representatives.

In Washington, she co-authored the Water Pollution Act of 1972 (now known as the Clean Water Act), then the country’s most comprehensive environmental legislation. She introduced the Equal Credit Act of 1974 — which gave women the economic dependence to apply for credit cards and loans in their own names — and the first bill to protect gay people from discrimination in U.S. history, which won only a handful of votes.

As chair of a subcommittee on government information and individual rights, she coauthored the Freedom of Information Act, the Right to Privacy Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act that required government hearings to be held in public. While calling CIA Director William Colby to testify, she discovered that the CIA had been spying on her for about 30 years. She was also the first member of Congress to call for President Richard Nixon’s impeachment and helped pass a bill to defund the Vietnam War.

In 1976, Abzug took the risk of giving up her House seat to run for Senate, which at the time did not contain any women. She lost in the primary to Daniel Patrick Moynihan by less than 1%. More losses followed in her races for mayor of New York City and Congress again, as cultural tides shifted to the right and Reaganism halted progressive strides in the 1980s.

Still, she never stopped fighting for her agenda on different stages. In the last two decades of her life, she presided over the first National Women’s Conference in Houston, founded the grassroots political action group Women USA and turned to international politics, transforming the United Nations’ efforts to empower women across the globe as president of the Women’s Environmental and Development Organization (WEDO).

The politically and culturally powerful women interviewed in “Bella!” saw themselves as Abzug’s children, according to Lieberman. Her biological children Eve and Liz Abzug, who are also interviewed, said she tirelessly pushed for her causes at the cost of her personal life.

All of the women interviewees described paying a long overdue tribute to a woman whose shoulders they stood on, who sometimes shattered herself along with the glass ceiling.

“They just knew that she really opened the door and blazed in and had to make a lot of sacrifices for being one of the first,” said Lieberman. “She sacrificed her own career, her own likability, her own personal joy because she had to be a tough person and go headfirst into institutions.” PJC

p Bella Abzug shown in 1979

Photo courtesy of Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress

“At the core, Bella Abzug was fueled by a sense of commitment to ‘tikkun olam,’ the idea of repairing the world. All of her elders really instilled in her that she needed to do unto others better than done unto her, so her social justice and her ethical core really were fired by that idea.”

–LEANDRA ZARNOW

Birth

Emily Silverman Vandervalk and Tyler Alan Vandervalk of Springfield, New Jersey, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Isabel Wren, on May 9, 2023. Excited grandparents are Dr. Stuart Silverman of Squirrel Hill, Nan Silverman of Mars, Mr. and Mrs. Ron VanderValk of Boynton Beach, Florida, and Lake Mohawk, New Jersey. Great-grandparents are Audrey and the late Ralph Silverman of Oakland and Allene and the late Warren Gittlen of Harrisburg. Isabel Wren is named after her paternal great-grandfather, Irwin Silverberg, and maternal great-grandfather, Warren Gittlen.

B’nei Mitzvah

Joshua Brayden Erbstein, son of Deborah R. Erbstein, Esq., will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. His proud grandparents are Dr. and Mrs. Robert Erbstein; aunt, Rebecca Erbstein; and uncle, Matthew Erbstein. In the fall, Joshua will be in seventh grade at Shady Side Academy. He loves Legos, Xbox and all things electronic.

Lucy Firman, daughter of Mindy and Irv Firman of Squirrel Hill, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Lucy is the sister of Eli Firman and Brian Firman. Grandparents are Anna Lee and the late David Firman and Evelyn Sobol and the late Bernard Sobol. Lucy will be an eighth-grade student at Shady Side Academy in the fall.

Indifference is a moral failing: Be different

Joke: “What distinguishes ‘ignorance’ from ‘indifference’?”

Answer: “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

To be clear, ignorance is not knowing, while indifference is not caring. Moreover, ignorance can be corrected, whereas indifference must be rejected.

As a sign above the windshield in my grade school bus proclaimed, “Stupid is forever. Ignorance can be fixed.” In contrast, this week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, unequivocally enjoins us to eschew all forms of apathy, declaring, “Lo Tuchal L’hitalem! You shall not be indifferent!” (Deut. 22:3)

chaplain William Sloan Coffin delivered a powerful sermon in which he declared, “Insofar as our ignorance stems from our indifference, ours is not an intellectual but, is rather, a moral failing.” The Rev. Coffin’s linking “ignorance borne of indifference” to “moral failure” made a powerful impression on me, while his deft ability to gently chide his audience for our society’s collective failure to recognize and give credence to the pain of others, never left me.

As I listened, I recall feeling implicated by Coffin’s amplification of Ki Teitzei’s charge Lo Tuchal L’hitalem, for I wondered if I was an unwitting party to that collective indifference, and how might I correct for it. Now, older and wiser, I recognize Coffin’s charge to be, at once, a collective indictment, as well as a personal invitation — to each of us — to rectify our ignorance and to remedy the

Indi erence to the experience of others, our Rabbis taught, not only violates a divine command but also implicates such dissembling as part of an all-too-human problem.

Devorah Mirabel Hartz will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday Aug. 26, 2023, at Congregation Beth Shalom. Devorah is the daughter of Andrea Hartz and Edward Hartz and older sister to Evan. She is the granddaughter of the late Donna Askin as well as the late Catherine and Gary Regnier. She is also the granddaughter of Dan and Ronna Askin of Pittsburgh, as well as Dr. Leo and Debra Hartz of Tampa, Florida. A seventh grader at Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy, Dev enjoys spending time with friends, swimming for JCC Sailfish, listening to music, summer camp at Emma Kaufmann and engaging others in thoughtful conversations that deepen her understanding of the world around her.

Judah Ryan Paris will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, at Chabad of Squirrel Hill. Judah is the son of Robert and Julie Paris and the younger brother of Ari. He is the grandson of David and Rochele Paris of Squirrel Hill, Rodney Fink of Rosslyn Farms, and the late DeDe Fink (z”l). Judah is an eighth grader at the Environmental Charter School. He enjoys running cross-country and track, playing basketball, hanging out at the JCC with his friends and spending his summers at Emma Kaufmann Camp. For his mitzvah project, Judah is raising money for the Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Building Fund.

Our tradition has long understood “indifference” to mean acting as if one does not see what’s going on; hiding from one’s own share of responsibility; and withholding evidence of concern, or even assistance, from those who suffer in one’s midst — and, perhaps, who suffer all the more intensely as a result of folks’ silence and absence.

How casually we have learned to feign ignorance by looking away. How practiced we are at evading our emotions and quieting our conscience with whispered half-truths. How clever the rationalizations we rely upon to excuse ourselves from true responsibility.

In the words of Shakespeare’s Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Act 3, Scene 2): “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

Indifference to the experience of others, our rabbis taught, not only violates a divine command but also implicates such dissembling as part of an all-too-human problem.

Thirty years ago, the late former Yale

indifference we exhibit to neighbors, friends and family, often without even realizing it.

Consider someone you care about who is lonely or hurting; have you reached out recently? Or have you rationalized away your failure to be there for a friend?

Consider a family member or cherished loved one who has recently suffered a life reversal or loss; have you called to say, “I love you” or simply to reaffirm you care? Or did you determine not to bother this person just now — or yourself, ever — for all kinds of reasons, any one of which, to the wounded, would fall on deaf ears?

To be human, it seems, is to be tempted to apathy. But Ki Teitzei clearly warns against our propensity to look away. PJC

Rabbi Aaron Bisno is the Frances F. & David R. Levin Rabbinic Scholar at Rodef Shalom Congregation. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.

With great pleasure, Daniel and Marina Mednik of Greenfield announce the marriage of their granddaughter Rachel Makary to Michael (Micky) Krenek, son of William (Bill) (z’l”) and Terrie Krenek of Orwell, Ohio. The ceremony and reception took place on Friday, June 16 at THIS IS RED in Munhall, Pennsylvania, with Rabbi Art Donsky officiating. The couple met while Rachel was a clerk at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh–Squirrel Hill, where she made Micky a library card. A honeymoon to Japan is planned in October and the newlyweds will continue to reside with their cat Eve in Pittsburgh where Micky is a carpenter and Rachel is an enrollment and marketing specialist. PJC

Rabbi Aaron Bisno Parshat Ki Teitzei Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19

Obituaries

CHOTINER: Alisa (Lisa) Chotiner, on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, lost her hard fought, courageous battle with ovarian cancer. Beloved wife of Jeffrey Chotiner. Caring mother of Jeremy and Marissa Chotiner. Daughter of Eileen (Harris) Snider and the late Myron Snider. Sister of Beth (Jeff) Elinoff and Amy Snider (Adam Bernard). Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Lisa always made sure that everyone was taken care of and enjoyed being with family and making sure everyone was smiling. Services were at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment New Light Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Family Hospice, Development Department, 700 Bower Hill Road, Suite 1405, Pittsburgh, PA 15243. schugar.com

COHEN: Susan Alana (Litchfield) Cohen, on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. Beloved wife of the late Louis William Cohen. Loving mother of Cheryl (Dennis) Bradshaw and Jeanne (Jeff) Sicuro. Bubbe of Maxwell, Jacqueline and Conall Bradshaw and Olivia Sicuro. Cousin of Marty Helstein. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, Greensburg. Contributions may be made to White Oak Animal Safe Haven, 2295 Lincoln Way, White Oak, PA 15131. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

COOK: The Honorable Art K. Cook. Arthur “Art“ Kenneth Cook passed away surrounded by loved ones on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, after a brief illness. Art was born in Pittsburgh on May 7, 1943, to Lillian and Joseph Cook. He was predeceased by his cherished wife, life partner and soulmate, Maxine Unikel Cook, on Oct. 26, 2022. Art is survived by his devoted sisters Arlene Cook Alfred and Sheila Cook Reicher Fine, as well as his adoring nieces, nephews, brothers-in-laws, sisters-in-laws, cousins and deeply treasured close friends. Finally, he is survived by their beloved German Shepard BB. Art lived life fully and on his terms. He was a courageous maverick. He was a lifelong student of Paramhansa yoga and an incredibly gifted clairvoyant. His wisdom and his actions were guided by his heart. Art was charismatic and possessed an extraordinary sense of humor bringing levity and laughter ... including his own ... to the room with his magical talent for storytelling. Art attended Miami University in Florida. He became a pilot and then served in the United States Air Force. He worked in the family business of Standard Sportswear, a menswear retail chain. In the late 1960s, Art met and married Maxine. Maxine referred to Art as her “Mister Wonderful,” “Slim,”” Cookie” ... her “Mirror of Truth,” “Best Friend of the Heart” and “My Everything.” They were urban hippies who, before it was popular, left the city and chose their slice of paradise nestled in the lushly green-blanketed mountains of Somerset County. It was there that Art enjoyed the simplicity of living quietly in nature, toiling in the soil, and using his skilled hands to contribute to its beauty. They became farmers and organic gardeners in 1970. They progressively constructed windmills on their land as well as engaging in solar energy production and use. Jo-li-co Farm (named for Art’s parents) has been 100% solar and wind-powered since 1978. Art and Max also started an automotive repair business that they operated for years. They generously embraced our family’s participation in their dream. They afforded us many opportunities, lessons and endless memories on Jo-li-co. We learned about the freedom nature offers, the value of the land and the possibilities of what it provides. They educated us about our responsibility to respect and appreciate the environment while actively seeking to protect and sustain it rather than to exploit it. We also learned how to live in harmony with animals and recognize more clearly that we are simply a link in the chain. Art served Somerset County as an elected district judge for 18 years. He processed nearly 200,000 cases, conducted 38,000 hearings, and collected nearly $22 million in fines and court costs. He also performed the county’s first video arraignment. He led by his beliefs in “the paramount importance of fairness and the treatment of people with decency.” He also sited adopting and implementing the Eastern philosophy that says, “There are no bad people; there is only bad behavior.” Art was described by his colleague the Honorable John M. Cascio, P.J.: “All of us in public service hope to create some type of legacy and Art’s long and distinguished career is one of scholarship, dedication, compassion and, above all, great common sense. All are the hallmarks of a great judge. After 18 years, thousands of cases, seemingly endless on-calls and a constant stream of difficult decisions all have been taken in stride and completed with dignity and his own dose of humor at just the appropriate time.” In addition to his courtroom work, Art also volunteered for the Somerset Humane Society and the local hospice. His family is so grateful for the imprints that he has made in each of our lives as well as those in the community that he loved. His memory is for a blessing. Services and interment were private. Contributions may be made to UPMC Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, Forbes Tower, Suite 8084, 3600 Forbes Ave. @Meyran Ave., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, Attn: Gift Processing; the Somerset Humane Society, P.O. Box 182, 204 Whitetail Road Somerset, PA 15501; or a charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

Please see Obituaries, page 20

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

Anonymous .Hannah Lillian Rice

Annette Alper Bella Weiner

Sherry Cartiff

Irene Posner

Dorisgayle Gladstone .Charlotte Charapp

Jeffrey L Kwall Isadore Louis Sigal

Linda Levine .Theodore Kohut

Marc Rice .Hannah Lillian Rice

Simma & Lawrence Robbins Francis Nadler

Sandra Taxay Schanfarber .Martin S Taxay, M .D

Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690

Sunday August 27: Harry Barnes, Solomon Cantor, Sarah Libby Caplan, Eva Ruth Emas, Ethel Geduldig, Bertha Knina, Rose Lucille Levison, Minnie Linetsky, Tauba Loffer, Samuel Mermelstein, Morris Morgan, Jack Rattner, Jacob Ellis Rosenberg, Mollie Rutner, Charles Schwelling, Israel Seidenstein, Annabelle L Sharon, Jennie Beck Wintner

Monday August 28: Nathan Beck, Jack Gusky, Erna Landsberger, Joseph L Lebovitz, Louis Levy, Morris L Lieberman, Anna Belle Nadler, Hannah Lillian Rice, Donald Rosenthal, Pearl Seltzer, Mary Simon, Judith Stein, Rose Uram, Bessie Weiner

Tuesday August 29: William Phillip Clovsky, Arleen Cohen, Charlotte J Goodman, Samuel M Hepps, Samuel Jacob Miller, Anna Singer, Jewel Steinberg Surloff, Esther Zinman

Wednesday August 30: Donald Baker, Belle Borofsky, Norma Davis Brodell, Jacob Broudy, Israel Louis Gordon, Herman Horowitz, Hyman J Jacobs, Morris Kalson, Theodore Kohut, Morris Mandel, Mollie Markowitz, Samuel M Rosenzweig, Frank Rubenstein, Besse Schugar, Jacob Schwartz, Abraham I Silverman, David Sinaiken, Joseph Slinger, Esther Wishnovitz

Thursday August 31: Max Breverman, Harvey Deaktor, Isadore J Ficks, Etta Glass, Howard Sylvan Guttman, Ethel Kanselbaum, Isreal Miller, Sidney Pariser, David Vinocur, Mary Weintraub

Friday September 1: Morris Abrom, Michael Balmuth, M .D ., Jacob Berman, Mendel Binstock, Ben Cartiff, Martin David Gillis, Goldie Harris, Simon Jonas, Esther Friedberg Levy, Charles Papernick, Charlotte Levy Pollack, Louis A Robins, Florence H Szobel, Cyril Freda Wolfson

The Original

2145 BRIGHTON ROAD • PITTSBURGH, PA 15212 • 412-321-2235 Serving the Jewish Community Since 1924

NOTICE OF HEARING

IN RE: PETITION OF CONGREGATION SHAARE TORAH, A PENNSYLVANIA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION TO APPROVE A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE; Case No. 022304685 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 Shaare Torah to approve a Fundamental Change in the form of the transfer of ownership and management of its cemeteries and the transfer of certain assets 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 September 7, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. in before the Honorable Lawrence O’Toole. Any interested person is invited to attend. Information may be obtained from Philip E. Milch Esq., Campbell & Levine, LLC, 310 Grant Street, Suite 1700, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219, phone (412) 467-8797; Attorney for Petitioner.

Obituaries:

Continued from page 19

DAVIS: Phyllis L. Davis of Squirrel Hill, formerly Greensburg, passed away on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. She was the beloved wife of the late Robert “Bob” Davis; most loving mother of Carole Davis, James and Marilyn Davis, Steven Davis and the late Rachel Leah (Terry) Davis;  cherished “Nanny” of Jeffrey and Jess Toig, Sarah Toig and Rae-Ann Wood, Elisabeth Duffy and Sam ChattertonKirchmeier, Lauren Davis, Kate Davis, Margot and Jacob Laksin, Joshua and Hayley Davis, Susan Davis and Andrew Mitchell; great-grandmother of Cole Feins, Ursa and Isla Mitchell, Leela and Amaya Duffy, Nathan and Sasha Laksin, Reece Davis and the late Noah Wood Toig.  Sister of the late June (Harry) Ziff. Phyllis is also survived by two sisters-in-law, Melva Weisberger and Ada Davis; and by many loving friends and extended family. Phyllis’ family would like to thank all of her caregivers for the loving compassion given to our Nanny. Live by her motto: “Never sit down — keep moving!” Family and friends were received on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, from noon until the time of service at 1 p.m. in the Kepple-Graft Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Temple Emanuel Cemetery of Greensburg c/o CEI 222 N. Main St., Greensburg, PA 15601, or Sivitz Hospice 200 JHF Dr., Pgh., PA 15217. For online condolences and information, please visit kepplegraft.com.

GRANOWITZ: Samuel P. Granowitz, M.D., on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. Beloved husband of the late Eleanor Granowitz. Loving father of Howard (Louise Weber) Granowitz, Beth (Jim) Ressler, and Brian (Leah Lang) Granowitz. Brother of Myrna Labow. Cherished grandfather of Tom, Lindsey, Jake and Lily. Samuel was a lifelong Pittsburgher, who completed both his undergraduate and medical studies at the University of Pittsburgh. After spending time in San Diego with the Navy, Samuel returned home to work as the sole practitioner of his own orthopedic surgery practice. He later joined the UPMC Department of Orthopedic Surgery, where he also spent time teaching. Samuel was an avid golfer, sports enthusiast and published author. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741 US or a charity of one’s choice. schugar.com

Carolyn Olbum passed away last week in her home in Ketchum, Idaho. She was married to Bing, with whom she had three children (Jon, Jenny and David), and they had seven grandchildren. She swam in waters and hiked in mountains, traveled, read voraciously and listened to the song of birds. She manifested her curiosity and creativity in clay and bronze. The energy she brought to the world will

RUBINOFF: Richard K. Rubinoff. Oct. 26, 1934 – Aug. 15, 2023. Richard (Dick) Rubinoff, 88, founder of The Rubinoff Company, died at home surrounded by his family on Aug. 15, 2023. Beloved husband of 40 years of JoAnne Rubinoff, devoted father of Amy Rubinoff, Caryn Rubinoff (Craig Dunham), Michael Rubinoff (Donna Snow), and Dan Rubinoff (Joice Davis). Loving grandfather of Roy, Anna and Erica Faigenbaum, Max and Melina Dunham and Madeline and Richard Rubinoff. Loving stepfather to Elizabeth Talenfeld (David Melton) and Greg Talenfeld (Melanie Rock), and grandfather to Haley Hoffman (Collin Frank), Jesse Hoffman (Federica Pauli) and Lula and Esme Talenfeld. Predeceased by his sister Rita (Sandy) Reichlin and survived by his sister Marcia (late Gordon) Rosenthal. A Pittsburgh native and graduate of the Kiski School and the University of Pittsburgh, Richard was dedicated to his family first and to his development company which fulfilled his lifetime ambition to make Pittsburgh a better place. A pioneer in the redevelopment of industrial sites including Washington’s Landing and Summerset at Frick Park, Richard was instrumental in their transformation into thriving places to live and work. Services were held at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com. PJC

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Life & Culture

Critics take aim at Bradley Cooper’s elongated nose as Leonard Bernstein in Netflix’s ‘Maestro’

By Jacob Gurvis | JTA

Soon after Netflix dropped the first official trailer for its upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” on Tuesday, one aspect of the film footage sparked a flurry of conversation online — and it wasn’t the preeminent Jewish conductor’s music or star Bradley Cooper’s acting.

Instead, the prosthetic nose supposedly used by the Oscar-nominated Cooper, who is not Jewish — and co-wrote, directed and stars as Bernstein in the film — infuriated many Jews who argued that the appendage plays into stereotypes about Jewish facial features.

Joel Swanson, a Jewish history Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, shared sideby-side images of Cooper’s character and the composer, writing: “This isn’t about making a non-Jewish actor look more like Leonard Bernstein; it’s about making a non-Jewish actor look more like a Jewish stereotype.”

Some went so far as to call Cooper’s use of a prosthetic antisemitic.

Daniel Sugarman, the director of public affairs for the Board of Deputies of

British Jews, pointed out that Cooper had previously starred in “The Elephant Man” on Broadway, a play about a man with serious physical deformities. Cooper did not use prosthetics for that role.

Bernstein’s three children released a statement in response to the backlash, writing: “In happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”

The controversy is the latest episode in a now years-long conversation about “Jewface,” a term used to describe nonJewish actors playing Jewish characters on screen. Comedian Sarah Silverman popularized the term and has been a vocal critic of the trend, which angered some Jewish fans when Felicity Jones portrayed Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the 2018 film “On the Basis of Sex” and when a planned Joan Rivers project that was set to star Kathryn Hahn was announced — before being scrapped.

“There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish, but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,” Silverman said on her podcast in 2021. She plays Bernstein’s sister in the film.

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Silverman is not the only Jewish actor in “Maestro.” Miriam Shor, who has described herself as “half Jewish but not really religious,” plays actor Cynthia O’Neal. Alexa Swinton, who stars on HBO’s “And Just Like That …” — and who celebrated her bat mitzvah in Israel earlier this summer — plays Bernstein’s daughter Nina. And Jewish actor Gideon Glick, known for his work on Broadway and on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” plays musician Tommy Cothran.

Spielberg, who was originally to direct, eventually handed over to Cooper.

“Sticking your neck out, hoping to get to tell the stories you love and that have been in your heart for a very long time is something to be proud of,” Gyllenhaal said. “And that story, that idea of playing one of the most preeminent Jewish artists in America and his struggle with his identity was in my heart for 20 some odd years, but sometimes those things don’t work out.”

Following the release of the “Maestro” trailer, some also resurfaced the backstory to the film itself, which Jewish actor Jake Gyllenhaal had wanted to star in.

In a 2021 interview with Deadline, Gyllenhaal highlighted Bernstein’s Jewishness as a key factor for his interest in the project, which Steven

One social media user wrote that Cooper “basically stole the rights for this film from a jewish man who had been passionately trying to make it for years.”

“Maestro” will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, followed by a limited theatrical release on Nov. 22 before it lands on Netflix on Dec. 20. PJC

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle is seeking a dynamic, creative and innovative sales

p Bradley Cooper is shown as Leonard Bernstein in the trailer for Netflix’s “Maestro.” Screenshot from YouTube

“This isn’t about making a non-Jewish actor look more like Leonard Bernstein; it’s about making a non-Jewish actor look more like a Jewish stereotype.”

– JOEL SWANSON

Mighty Maccabi

A delegation of Pittsburghers was among 3,000 Jewish teen athletes at the JCC Maccabi Games, an Olympic-style event held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Participants enjoyed opening and closing ceremonies, community service, social and cultural events, and numerous sports competitions.

Great day at the zoo

Jewish heritage is a win, even during a loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates hosted Jewish Heritage Night at PNC Park. Despite the Buccos losing to the Atlanta Braves, attendees received a limited-edition Pittsburgh Pirates Hebrew T-shirt. Hooray for heritage.

Backpack to school

JFCS Youth Services hosted a back-to-school free store for refugee youth and their families. Donated backpacks, school supplies, clothing, books and other items were available during the Aug. 18 event.

p Silver medals bring the smiles.

Photos courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

p When the elephant in the room is the elephant.

Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh visited the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium thanks to support from the Philip Chosky Charitable & Educational Foundation.

p Temple Sinai choir members sing the National Anthem.

Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Pirates

p Starting the year off right

Photo by Michael Schroeder

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