Hillel Academy celebrates the grand opening of the Yitzy Sutofsky Campus
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
How do you commemorate the completion of an $11.5 construction project?
If you are Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, you throw a party with hundreds of your closest friends that includes a Hachnasas Sefer Torah parade, the renaming of your campus, a breakfast honoring the naming of your girls’ high school and a concert featuring musician Eitan Katz.
The Sept. 1 celebration occurred less than a week after the beginning of the new academic year and marked the grounds being renamed the Hillel Academy Yitzy Sutofsky Campus.
Yitzy was a Hillel Academy student who died in 2023. Principal and Education Director Rabbi Sam Weinberg said he was “emblematic of the school.”
“He was an amazing kid and personality, a real role model,” Weinberg said. “He embodied the mission of the school and was someone who was also a great athlete. He loved Torah, loved learning and was a role model and inspiration to a lot of people.”
Yitzy’s father, Akiva Sutofsky, who works at the school as a counselor, said the renaming of the campus was “very humbling” and that,
while his emotions were still raw at the loss of his son, he felt blessed.
Two Jewish students attacked at Pitt
“To name the school that I work at, that my kids went to, that we care so much about, it just means everything to us,” he said.
Sutofsky noted that his son, one of five children, loved learning and Torah. It was one of his last wishes that a Torah be written in his honor.
The new scroll, “Yitzy’s Torah,” was unveiled at the celebration. Hundreds of people, from as far away as Chicago and New York, attended the ceremony, which took place at the Sutofskys’ home. A parade marched the new Torah through several blocks to Hillel, where it will be housed in the school’s new shul.
The celebration attracted not only members of the Jewish community but also several local politicians.
City Controller Rachael Heisler said she wanted to be there to honor Yitzy.
“What happened to him was absolutely tragic,” she said. “When you can honor someone’s memory in this way it’s very kind.”
City Councilmember Barb Warwick said she learned of the event from fellow council
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Jarrett Buba, who was arrested on Aug. 30 after allegedly attacking two Jewish students at the University of Pittsburgh, has been denied bail and ordered by Magisterial District Judge Nick Martini to complete a behavioral clinic evaluation at the Allegheny County Jail. The students, who were wearing yarmulkes, were on their way to the Hillel Jewish University Center building for Shabbat dinner after a pre-Shabbos gathering at Hemingway’s Café, according to Daniel Marcus, executive director and CEO of Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.
Wearing a keffiyeh and a red shirt, Buba allegedly assaulted the students with a glass bottle, hitting them from behind. One of the students eventually wrestled him to the ground and held him until the police arrived.
Despite his pro-Palestinian garb — commonly
Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh
Photo by Notyourbroom, creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Andy Dean/Adobe Stock
Hillel Academy celebrated the renaming of its campus and grand opening on Sept. 1.
Photo by David Rullo
Headlines
‘This is what community looks like’: Hundreds turn out for Pittsburgh vigil after 6 hostages murdered in Gaza
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
Pittsburgh’s Jewish community turned out in strength — and unity — Tuesday night for a vigil in memory of the six hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza last week, and in support of those still held in captivity.
More than 300 Jewish Pittsburghers and their allies packed the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Levinson Hall to hear about the lives of Eden Yerushalmi, 23; Carmel Gat, 40; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alex Lobanov, 32; Ori Danino, 25; and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23. All six hostages were shot multiple times at close range, indicating they were executed, according to The Times of Israel. The Israel Defense Forces recovered their bodies from Gaza on Saturday.
The vigil was conceived by Karen Gal-Or and Marjorie Manne, who both traveled with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to Israel in June. While there, they met with the family of a hostage and survivors of the Oct. 7 attack.
“Every single day since Oct. 7, we have prayed for the return of the hostages, and have tried in every way possible to raise awareness of their plight,” Gal-Or told the crowd at the commencement of the vigil. “We are here today to mourn the tragic loss of these six remarkable young lives, so full of promise and love, taken from us far too soon.”
After learning of the murders of “these six beautiful souls, many in our community felt and continue to feel deep sadness, even despair,” Manne told the attendees. “But we can and should find solace in our incredible community. Today’s vigil stands as a powerful testament to the strength and unity
of that community. The Federation, the JCC, StandWithUs, CDS, Hillel, Yeshiva Schools and rabbis from various congregations have come together to honor the lives of these six young people and to pray for the return of the remaining hostages. It is this unity that has helped the Jewish people endure for generations.”
Manne acknowledged the support of the community’s allies. Several elected officials were present at the vigil, including Sen. John Fetterman, City Controller Rachael Heisler, Allegheny County Councilman Paul Klein, City Councilwoman Erika Stassburger, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor and Pennsylvania state Rep. Abigail Salisbury.
Each of the six hostages was eulogized by a Pittsburgh Jewish community member, followed by videos and photos shared by their families during their captivity.
Yerushalmi, who was studying to become a Pilates instructor, loved spending time at the beach, attending parties and playing paddleball. Her sisters described her as “a dominant
character with an unending joy of life.” She was working as a bartender at the Nova music festival when the terrorists attacked. She hid in a car alongside the bodies of her friends who had been killed, and later fled into a forested area, where she was abducted.
Gat, an occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, was visiting her parents at Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked, killing her mother. Gat was taken captive. While in captivity, she taught yoga and meditation to the other hostages, including the children she was with. Hostages who have been released described Gat as their guardian angel.
Sarusi loved traveling around the country with his white Jeep and guitar. He was taken hostage from the Nova music festival, which he was attending with his girlfriend. His girlfriend was shot and critically injured. Sarusi stayed by her side and tried to save her, but his efforts failed. He was captured and taken to Gaza.
Lobanov was bartending at the Nova music festival when the attack began. He helped to
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evacuate people until he was kidnapped by Hamas. He is the father of a toddler and a baby who was born while he was in captivity and who he never had a chance to meet.
Danino was planning to study electrical engineering and was engaged to be married. His fiancée described him as a hero who excelled in everything he did. When rockets rained down at the Nova music festival, Danino drove himself and others away from the festival to safety, but then he turned back, hoping to rescue new friends he had met at the festival. When he turned back, he was abducted by Hamas.
Goldberg-Polin became one of the most well-known hostages due to the worldwide efforts of his parents advocating for his safe return, as well as the safe return of the other hostages. He loved soccer and music and geography. Rabbi Daniel Yolkut of Congregation Poale Zedeck, who is close with the Goldberg-Polin family, spoke of their dedication and offered words of consolation to the Jewish people as they mourn.
“We, the Jewish people, are living in a deep, dark tunnel, a tunnel filled with fear and pain and sorrow, a tunnel that desperately needs to be destroyed so that we can see the light again,” Yolkut said. “One of the ways we do that is to come together. One of the ways that we get out of that tunnel of fear is to look around and see among us friends and hope and possibility, and to recognize that when we pray for the hostages, we don’t mean just those being held in Gaza. We mean all of us.”
The community’s unity at the vigil was profound. Leaders from the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Lubavitch movements came together in solidarity. Rabbi Daniel Fellman of Temple Sinai led a prayer for the hostages. Rabbi Yitzi Genack
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More than 300 community members gathered at the JCC in Squirrel Hill to mourn the murder of six hostages in Gaza Photo by Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
Martin Baron, former editor of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, on journalism and optimism
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
Martin “Marty” Baron’s career would make a great movie.
In fact, part of it already has.
As editor of The Boston Globe, Baron led his team of journalists in exposing the sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic church. The Globe’s investigative reporting led not only to some relief for scores of victims, but to the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and the 2015 Academy Award-winning biographical film “Spotlight.”
Baron, the son of Israeli immigrants, became the executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013, a position he held until his retirement in 2021. His new book, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post,” tells the inside story of the Post at the time Jeff Bezos bought it and Donald Trump went on attack against it. The audio version of the book is narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, who portrayed Baron in “Spotlight.”
Baron will be in Pittsburgh on Sept. 14, at the Highmark Theatre, in conversation with Next Pittsburgh columnist Tony Norman; New York Times Magazine contributing writer Maggie Jones; and Andrew Conte, director of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation. A Q&A with the audience will follow.
The event, presented by the International Free Expression Project in partnership with the Center for Media Innovation, is a prelude to the Center’s Sept. 26-28 celebration of storytelling and fact-based journalism, Newsapalooza!
Baron spoke with the Chronicle in advance of his appearance in Pittsburgh. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Newsapalooza! event in Pittsburgh is all about emphasizing the importance of local news. I know that’s a passion of yours. You’ve described the threat to local news as being the biggest crisis in American journalism. Could you talk a little bit about that?
I think it comes down to our commitment to democracy. Democracy begins at the local level — in towns and cities — deciding what your schools are like, deciding how your police departments are run, deciding what local environmental issues should be addressed, how the courts operate. All of that. And so when you don’t have vibrant local news coverage and no one’s covering those issues, people don’t know what’s happening in their own communities. And it doesn’t just concern the matters that may divide people, but the issues that actually bind people together. So, coverage of your local sports, coverage of your local art scene, coverage of what’s happening in the shared spaces, like parks and recreational facilities.
Social media has not proved to be an adequate substitute for that, and it certainly is not an adequate substitute in terms of keeping watch on government officials and others with authority and power who have a huge influence over the lives of ordinary people. Somebody needs to do that. If there is no local news coverage, no one is
watching the city council, no one is watching a county commission, no one is watching the courts or the police department or their local environmental agency.
It’s really important that people and communities throughout this country support their local news organizations, the ones that are serious about covering their own communities.
And yet, so many local news outlets are closing. How do you get people invested in local journalism so that it doesn’t just die away?
I think we face an enormous number of challenges — technological, financial and the fact that we live in a society that’s highly polarized at the moment. So, where people don’t share a common set of facts — they can’t even agree on how to establish that something is a fact — all of the things that we’ve used in the past, like education, expertise, experience and actual evidence, are being dismissed and denigrated or denied. But some of it is our fault. We didn’t adapt well enough to the digital environment. Not just adapt to it; we didn’t embrace it. The reality is that people prefer to receive their information by digital means. Most people are getting information off of a cell phone. We may not like that. Those of us who grew up in the traditional newspapers may prefer that people read on print, but that’s not how people live their lives today. They want to get information often, instantaneously. They want to get it whatever time they would like, to see it wherever they happen to be, and that’s not possible with the print product.
Moreover, the advertising environment has favored social media and search engines over traditional media. It has proved to be a more efficient way of reaching people who, based on their online behavior, have expressed an interest in a particular product or a service, and so that’s been a more efficient delivery vehicle for advertising.
On the positive side, we are seeing a lot of nonprofits crop up. We are seeing significant support in a number of communities across the country for those nonprofits; they are operating with lower costs. They don’t have to produce a
print product, which lowers your costs. They have a strong sense of how people wish to receive information digitally. They have embraced new storytelling methods, breaking away from the traditional structures of journalism, of the way we used to write stories — or did write stories in newspapers — and recognizing that people just receive their information in different ways and on mobile devices or some other digital device. Because the whole information environment and news environment is being radically reinvented, we have to radically reinvent ourselves, and we need to think through very profoundly: How do people like to receive information? How should storytelling methods change? How can we adapt to that?
Those organizations that are willing to do that have a greater likelihood of success. And I think we’re seeing that with a number of news organizations around the country that are having substantial success, both profit-oriented and nonprofit-oriented. The New York Times just had a story about the large number of media outlets in San Francisco, for example, and I’m actually on the board of a small San Francisco, hyper-local site. And, you know, they don’t have it easy, but they’re competing. They’re fully digital. They’re serving their community in every way possible. And now they’re very energetically seeking to raise funds. So I think we see some evidence that the news will survive. And I think as long as we have a democracy, there will be a need for news organizations. I mean, the purpose of journalism, in my view, is to give the public the information it needs and deserves to know so that they can govern themselves, and I think there will be a need for that, a demand for that, as long as we have a democracy.
You sound a little skeptical that we will have a democracy.
I think there are numerous threats to our democracy at the moment, and I’m very concerned about that. I am an optimist because I think it’s important that we succeed and I don’t know anybody who’s ever succeeded by expecting to fail. So I’m an optimist about journalism, and I’m an optimist about our democracy as well, but that does not mean that it doesn’t face some significant challenges and threats. And one of the greatest threats, frankly, is the reality that we don’t share a common set of facts, and that we can’t even agree on how to establish what a fact is, and that we’ve dismissed all the elements that we’ve used in the past. Education has been denigrated, expertise has been denigrated, experience has been sort of dismissed, and evidence is being ignored. What we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears. So that’s concerning. It’s a concern for journalism. It’s a concern for the press. But bigger than that, it’s very hard to have human progress when we can’t agree on a shared set of facts.
So what do we do about that? I mean, it seems almost insurmountable.
Well, I don’t know that it’s insurmountable. I mean, I think that we live in a highly polarized, bipartisan environment right now, and people are drawn to information sources that affirm their preexisting point of view. That’s true of the right, but it’s also true of the left,
and I think our role in the press is to make sure that we do our jobs in an honest, honorable, straightforward, fair and objective way, that we not become partisans. It’s very important that we remain independent, that we demonstrate over time that the information we’ve gathered has been verified, and I think over time, people will come to recognize that there are sources of information they can rely upon, and sources of information, or so-called information — sometimes it’s misinformation, and sometimes it’s actually disinformation — that they cannot rely upon, but they may like it. They may be drawn to it, but it’s not where they go in order to get information that is truly verified.
Our job in journalism, in mainstream journalism at least, is to engage in the process of verification, make sure that what we’re reporting is accurate, make sure that it is put in the proper context, make sure that it’s fairly presented. That doesn’t mean bothsidesism. It doesn’t mean false equivalence. It doesn’t mean any of that. It means that we keep an open mind when we embark on our journalism. It means that we talk to all the appropriate people, we look at all of the available evidence, and then we tell people what that reporting shows. And if that’s not what reporting is, then I don’t know what reporting is, because if you’re approaching your stories already knowing in advance what you’re going to say, then it’s an exercise in confirmation bias. So I think we need to do our jobs objectively, fairly, honorably, honestly, make sure we’re accurate, correct our mistakes. I do think there’s a market for that in this country, and I think over time people will come to recognize that there are reliable sources of information, and then there are sources of information, or so-called information, that are not, in fact, reliable.
I’d like to move to the war in Israel and Gaza. Do you feel that the mainstream press has been objective and accurate in its reporting?
I don’t like to generalize about the media. The media is a lot of different things. It’s a lot of different players and a lot of different circumstances and individual stories. Each one operates independently. They do their own stories. Some are better than others. Some are more complete than others. Some are premature and some come too late. All I will say is that this is a very, very difficult subject to cover. Having been in the middle of this myself, I can guarantee you that there is absolutely no way to satisfy all individuals here, all sides. It’s a highly complex subject. The history is incredibly complex. And when you’re in the middle of trying to cover that, readers have their own strong views. I think it’s important that we cover all sides here, that we cover what’s happening in Israel, the perspective from Israel, the perspective of being under assault, of facing an enemy who wishes to destroy the country and would undoubtedly engage in genocide itself if it had the opportunity to do that — and it says that quite openly. It’s made clear that is its objective. That’s the objective of Hamas, Hezbollah and others.
On the other hand, it’s very important that the
— Q&A —
p Martin Baron Photo by Essdras M Suarez
Headlines
College students return from internships in Israel with more than work experience
with patients between their appointments or spent time in the intensive care unit.
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Summer internships in Israel granted Pittsburgh college students greater appreciation for living and learning in the Jewish state.
Thanks to Onward Israel, a TaglitBirthright program, Hallie Jayson, 20, spent two months with Sidelines Group, a Tel Aviv-based sports-tech startup.
“They partner with FanDuel, DraftKings and other big-name sports books, and help guide high-quality traffic to those casinos and sports books through IT, Google ads and Facebook ads,” the University of Pittsburgh student said.
Jayson entered the internship knowing little about sports betting. She chose Sidelines Group, one of more than 70 programs within Onward’s portfolio, because she was intrigued by the company and its culture. During her interview with the Tel Aviv-based company, Jayson was told about a “fun and inclusive” environment where there’s “no sort of hierarchy in the office, somewhere where you can sit down with the CEO and eat lunch with him as if he’s another co-worker, which is not really like what the work culture is in America — at least in corporate America,” she said.
The Pitt student, who hopes to work in the sports industry after college, cherished the experience.
“It was very relevant to what I want to do for a living,” she said. “It helped a lot.”
Squirrel Hill resident Zev Schreiber spent the summer interning with Save A Child’s Heart. The Holon-based nonprofit delivers life-saving cardiac care to children worldwide.
“The kids fly to Israel, who then get care at the Children’s Hospital, stay at the Children’s Home until they’re fully recovered and are sent back home happy and healthy,” Schreiber said.
For two months, Schreiber, a Case Western Reserve student, split his time between the Children’s Hospital and Children’s Home.
On days at the hospital, he hung out
Complementing the “incredibly impactful experience,” he said, were periods at the Children’s Home where he planned activities and played with kids.
Schreiber, who hopes to become a child psychologist, said interning with Save A Child’s Heart offered a “bit of a full circle moment.”
Years earlier, during a visit to Israel around the time of his bar mitzvah, Schreiber was introduced to the organization.
“One of the things that I remember from that trip was Save A Child’s Heart,” he said. “It was so impactful for me then, just as it is now.”
Though participants praised the internships, fewer Pittsburghers joined Onward this summer than last, according to Brian Burke,
out of Onward.
“I just felt like I needed to be in Israel at that time, just to be there and support the Jewish people as a whole and the Jewish community,” Jayson said.
“I think going in and being fed a lot of things from social media and the news, you go in a little nervous,” Schreiber said. “But living there and seeing people living their everyday lives and just going about their business, but also being smart as well, was pretty interesting to me.”
In the U.S., many people follow events in Israel and question “how people can live normal lives there,” Schreiber continued.
when the encampment started — we had one at Pitt during our finals week in the spring — walking past that, it’s scary when you get stares. I still wear my necklace now; I’m still doing that because I feel like I shouldn’t be afraid to, but I have gotten stares when I walked around in the day-and-a-half that I’ve been back here.”
Being in Israel changed Schreiber’s attitude.
Before traveling to the Jewish state this summer, he “shied away from social media and posting about Israel,” he said. “When I was there, I realized that I couldn’t do that anymore. I couldn’t be there at that time and not share my experiences with people, with all the misinformation going around.”
After Schreiber began posting about his time in Israel, he said he expected to receive the “typical bad messages thrown at me.”
Instead, the opposite occurred.
“Someone from my school — actually that I hadn’t talked to in a couple years — hit me up and gave me this really positive message, just kind of backing what I was saying. It kind of took me aback,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of response at all.”
The digital exchange bolstered a summer of learning.
“One of my major takeaways was just being really appreciative of Israel, of the IDF, people my age protecting their country,” he said. “I just found it so important to bring everything back home and talk with my friends, my family, everyone, about what I experienced this summer.”
Given the insights gleaned this summer, Schreiber said it’s imperative to keep speaking, posting and telling others about Israel.
“If we don’t, who’s going to? There’s only one Jewish state,” he said. “We have to spread the word and talk about all the positive things.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Zev Schreiber, an intern at Save A Child's Heart, hangs out with a child in the courtyard of the Children's Home. Photo courtesy of Zev Schreiber
p Hallie Jayson, second from right, visits Ein Avdat National Park with friends.
Photo courtesy of Hallie Jayson
p Onward Israel participants meet at Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv.
Photo courtesy of Hallie Jayson
Headlines
Faith leaders recall gun violence, hoping to prevent future tragedy
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Victims of gun violence recounted horror in order to protect places of worship.
During the Aug. 29 event at Jesus’ Dwelling Place Church in North Braddock, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the Rev. Brenda Gregg and Pastor Glen Germany recalled their experiences and implored fellow faith leaders to prepare accordingly.
“How tragic is it to me that the three of us should be sitting here,” Myers, the rabbi of Tree of Life Congregation, said to Pittsburgh clergy and members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
“By all accounts, right, I shouldn’t be here. I should be dead,” Myers said.
The rabbi, one of three panelists at the Protecting Places of Worship United Against Hate Forum, detailed his experience on Oct. 27, 2018, and said his death would be certain “if not for Pittsburgh’s finest.”
Myers praised the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and said, “Four of God’s angels came to rescue me.”
When Pittsburgh police “ran into the bullets” on Oct. 27, their behavior starkly contrasted with some moments in history, he continued. “On Nov. 9, 1938, in Nazi Germany the
Myers implored local clergy to heed his experience.
“Any church leader who thinks their house of worship is safe, you are a fool,” he said. “ There is no safe house of worship in the U.S. anymore.”
Myers attributed the lack of safety to the prevalence of guns.
There are 333.3 million people living in the United States, but the number of firearms is even greater, Bloomberg reported.
is managing the effects of those firearms, Myers said.
“Half of my time is spent dealing with the continued aftermath of Oct. 27,” he said.
“How do I restore faith to people after a gunman stole it from them?” Myers asked. “I can’t order it on Amazon.”
Gregg said her congregation, Destiny of Faith Church in Brighton Heights, followed the events of Oct. 27, 2018, and recognized
that we need a plan for our church on the North Side,” she said.
Church members undertook active shooter training because of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, she said. Still, during an Oct. 28, 2022, funeral for a victim of gun violence, Destiny of Faith became the site of an active shooting.
During the funeral, two people began shooting, Gregg recalled: “We didn’t know whether the shooting was inside or outside.”
Six individuals were injured due to gunfire.
“Thank God we didn’t lose any of them,” Gregg said. “Had it not been for that raining, I don’t know what would have happened.”
The reverend told colleagues on Aug. 29 that they and their congregations must have a “close and trusting relationship with law enforcement.”
Germany recalled the events of May 5, 2024, when a gunman entered Jesus’ Dwelling Place in North Braddock and attempted to murder him. He recounted that he was speaking from the front of the church when the gunman approached, the firearm jammed and a deacon tackled the potential killer.
Reading “the signs of the times” is easier than predicting the weather, Germany said.
The current state of affairs is a matter of “sowing and reaping,” he continued. “We as a nation, if we continue to sow what we’re sowing then what do you think is going to happen?”
p Rep. Abigail Salisbury speaks on Aug. 29.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
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.
SUNDAYS, SEPT. 8–DEC. 29
Join a lay-led online parshah study group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
MONDAY, SEPT. 9
Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership for healing, consciousness-building forest bathing. Enjoy gentle walks through Pittsburgh’s parks while nurturing your connection to the natural world through reflective practices. 9:30 a.m. Free. Registration required. Walled Garden in Mellon Park. 1027healingpartnership.org/forest-bathing-4.
Join the Women of Temple Sinai for their Make ‘n’ Eat cooking class, exploring food for the holidays. September’s instructor is Carolyn Terner, who will discuss recipes to enhance your Rosh Hashanah table. This is a hands-on learning experience for novice cooks and experts. Bring an apron if you have one. All are welcome to make food and enjoy the meal! Cost: $15 (ages 16-plus); 6 p.m. 5505 Forbes Ave. templesinaipgh.org/programs-events.
MONDAYS, SEPT. 9–DEC. 30
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
Join Temple Sinai for an evening of mahjong every Monday (except holidays). Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience, you are sure to enjoy the camaraderie and good times as you make new friends or cherish moments with longtime pals. All are welcome. Winners will be awarded Giant Eagle gift cards. All players should have their own 2024 mahjong cards. Contact Susan Cohen at susan_k_cohen@yahoo.com if you have questions. $5. templesinaipgh.org.
WEDNESDAYS, SEPT. 11–DEC. 18
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 12
Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh for An Evening with Solange Lebovitz. Learn about Holocaust survivor Solange Lebovitz’s experiences as a Jewish child and teen living in occupied France,
hiding from the Nazis and their collaborators. While she was living in hiding, her other family members were in concentration camps and her brothers were members of the French Resistance. 6 p.m. Eddy Theatre at Chatham University, Woodland Road, 15232. eventbrite.com/e/989.
Join StandWithUs for its inaugural Pittsburgh Community Reception honoring Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler and featuring keynote speaker Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus. 6 p.m. Early bird: $90; VIP: $250. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. standwithus.com/pittsburgh-event-2024.
The 10.27 Healing Partnership presents Fall Forest Bathing. “Bathe” in the sounds and sights of nature during gentle walks through Frick Park while nurturing your connection to the natural world through reflective practices. 10 a.m. Lower Frick Park (entering o Hutchinson in Regent Square). 1027healingpartnership.org/forest-bathing-4.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 14
Join the Tree of Life Congregation for Torah Studio, featuring David Zubik, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. 9:45 a.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, Levy Hall, 4905 Fifth Ave. treeoflifepgh.org.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 15
Join the Brotherhoods of Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom Congregation for a Brunch & Panel Discussion with state Sen. Jay Costa and state Rep. Dan Frankel, who will share their thoughts on how we can participate in the democratic process most e ectively during election years and in o -years. Brunch includes French toast, vegetarian jambalaya and homemade gravlax. Pre-registration: $18 per person (by Wednesday, Sept. 11); $22 per person at the door. 5505 Forbes Ave. templesinaipgh.org/programs-events.
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Women’s Mini Retreat. Enjoy a day of workshops, crafts and words of inspiration to help prepare for the High Holidays. 11 a.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. $54. chabadpgh. com/retreat.
SUNDAYS, SEPT. 15, 29
Join the Jewish community for a "Bring Them Home Vigil" in support of the hostages still being held by Hamas. The vigil will start with calling the names of the IDF soldiers who were killed in the last week, followed by one minute of silence. Noon. Corner of Murray Avenue and Darlington Road.
MONDAY, SEPT. 16
Empowered Citizenship: Understanding Hate Speech and Crime, a community safety forum led by the U.S. Attorney’s O ce, local and federal law enforcement, Jewish Federation community safety, and a University of Pittsburgh law professor, will help community members recognize their rights, responsibilities and best practices, while providing a more informed perspective on hate crimes and hate speech prosecution. 5:30 p.m. Jewish
Community Center Levinson Hall B. Register at 1027healingpartnership.org/empowered-citizenship.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18
Chabad of Monroeville invites you to spend an hour playing mahjong and other games. Play, shmooze, learn a word of the Torah, say a prayer for Israel and nosh on some yummy treats. Free. 7 p.m. RSVP is required: SusanEBurgess@gmail.com, or text or call 412-295-1838. 2715 Mosside Blvd. jewishmonroeville. com/mahjong.
The Squirrel Hill AARP will welcome speaker Athletico Pivot’s chief medical/physical therapist Sarah Jones to its September meeting. Jones will discuss how seniors can safely improve their balance. Refreshments will be served. 1 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, Falk Library, 4905 Fifth Ave.
WEDNESDAYS, SEPT. 18; OCT. 16; NOV. 20; DEC. 18
Join AgeWell for the Intergenerational Family Dynamics Discussion Group at JCC South Hills the third Wednesday of each month. Led by intergenerational specialist Audree Schall. The group is geared toward anyone who has children, grandchildren, a spouse, siblings or parents. Whether you have family harmony or strife, these discussions will be thought-provoking, with tools to help build strong relationships and family unity. Free. 12:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 19
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Women’s Farbrengen, an evening of Chassidic songs and stories on the topic of “Stepping into the Light.” Enjoy hot drinks and desserts. 7 p.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. $10 suggested donation. chabadpgh.com/farbrengen.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 21
Join Temple Sinai for Jewish Caroling: The Music of Carole King, Carole Bayer Sager and Carolyn Leigh, with Rabbi Deborah Zecher. Free and open to the public. Reservations and donations appreciated. 7 p.m. 5505 Forbes Ave. templesinaipgh.org/programs-events.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 24
Join Chabad of the South Hills to hear Moria Azulay
and Or Barak present Faith and Resilience: Israel after October 7. Moria served as a combat soldier in the Jordan Lions Battalion and is a social media content creator, who has been creating content for Israel advocacy organizations. Or served as combat support in the Gaza divisions. He is a photographer and is a producer of music videos and film. 7 p.m. $18 suggested donation. Address given upon registration. chabadsh.com/Israel.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 26
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is pleased to welcome Alex Kor and Graham Honaker for A Blessing, Not a Burden: The Story of Two Holocaust Survivors, Eva and Mickey K 6 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. eventbrite.com/e/995324782217?a =oddtdtcreator.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 28
Join Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom Congregation for guest speaker Rabbi Michael Zedek, dessert, reception and service with Rabbi Daniel Fellman, Cantor David Reinwald, Rabbi Sharyn Henry, Cantor Toby Glaser and the Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom combined choirs. 7:30 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave.
Everyone is invited to Temple Ohav Shalom for a Selichot Sound Bath. Prepare for the Jewish New Year with havdalah and a meditative soundscape featuring singing bowls and other healing instruments. To relax on the floor, bring your own mat, blanket and comfort items. Chairs and a limited number of mats will be provided. RSVP required. 8 p.m. 8400 Thompson Run Road, 15101. forms.gle/1ezybsvudP8dmjp26.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 29
Bring your family for a pre-high holiday challah bake, complete with crafts, storytelling and a shofar-making workshop. 1 p.m. $10/child. Chabad of Squirrel Hill, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/kidscooking.
MONDAY, OCT. 9
Join the Squirrel Hill AARP for a lunch brunch. Noon. Ritters Dinner. RSVP to Gerri Linder before Oct. 3 at (412)421-5868. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Sept. 22 discussion of “The Singer Sisters,” by Sarah Seltzer. From the Jewish Book Council: “Journalist and cultural critic Sarah Seltzer has written a remarkable debut novel that taps into her deep well of knowledge about feminism and rock history. 'The Singer Sisters' is about two generations of a folk-rock dynasty and the sacrifices these female artists must make in the pursuit of their dreams."
“The chief protagonists, though ‘antagonists’ might be a better word, are 1960s folk legend Judie — think Joan Baez or Judy Collins — and her nineties-era, black nail polish–wearing, alt-rock daughter, Emma. This ingenious story weaves in fascinating subplots about other members of their talented clan as it explores the conflict between being a mother and writing great songs.”
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle
David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m.
What to do
Buy: “The Singer Sisters.” It is available at some area Barnes and Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting. Happy reading! PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas,
spurred by Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s murder
By Ron Kampeas | JTA
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced criminal charges against Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar, an action spurred by the group’s murder over the weekend of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli.
The charges, filed in federal court in New York’s Southern District, are “for financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States,” Garland said in a video posted Tuesday afternoon on the Department of Justice website.
The charges include crimes that could get the death penalty. In addition to the organization, six individuals are named, including Sinwar. Three have been killed by Israel in recent months, including Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh. The three who are alive are Sinwar; Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, based in Qatar; and Ali Baraka, a top official based in Lebanon.
“Those defendants, armed with weapons political support and funding from the
Hezbollah have led Hamas’ efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim in its attacks over the past three decades,” he said.
Garland honed in on the events of Oct. 7, when Hamas launched its war against Israel with massacres and mass abductions, and over the weekend, when Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages were shot in the head as Israeli rescuers moved in.
“On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians,” Garland said. “They perpetrated
the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. This weekend, we learned that Hamas murdered six more hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli American. We are investigating his murder and each and every one of the brutal murders of Americans as acts of terrorism.”
Charging Hamas and Sinwar, who is in hiding, allows the federal government to add resources to tracking the group and subpoenaing individuals who are alleged to support it. Naming Meshaal suggests the Biden administration may plan to pressure Qatar, one of a handful of countries that has relations with Hamas, to hand over its leaders
Hamas is already designated by the U.S. Treasury and the State Department as a terrorist organization, which allows the United States to freeze any funds the group keeps in dollar accounts, and a release said the FBI, which will lead the new investigation, is looking at how Hamas is financed.
“Since 2019, Hamas’ military wing has used social media and other platforms to call for cryptocurrency contributions from supporters abroad, including in the United States, to Hamas-controlled virtual wallets, explicitly acknowledging that those payments would be used to fund Hamas’ campaign of
violence,” it said. “Through these mechanisms, Hamas has received tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency payments to fund its activities.”
Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank who was once a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the FBI said the charges raised the stakes.
“Treasury and State Department designations are one thing, but indicting specific Hamas leaders on terrorism charges for their roles in the October 7 attack — including the deaths of American citizens — this takes this to another level entirely,” he said. “The message is that this is a criminal entity, not part of the postwar solution, in fact, the overwhelming majority of the problem.”
The charges notably were filed in the Southern District of New York, staffed with federal prosecutors who have for decades been leading terrorism prosecutions.
“Our commitment is clear: if you hurt one member of our community, you hurt all of us — and we stand with all victims of Hamas’ reign of terror,” said the district’s U.S. Attorney, Damian Williams. “We will bring justice to this terrorist organization from the top down for the atrocities they have committed.”
PJC
Far-right party wins German state election for first time since the Nazi era
reignited popular anxiety about social unrest connected with the more than 1 million refu gees admitted to Germany since 2015.
By Toby Axelrod | JTA
BERLIN — For the first time since the Nazi era, a far-right party in Germany has won the largest piece of the electoral pie in a state election.
Mainstream politicians and Jewish leaders are expressing alarm following Sunday’s elections, in which the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia Alternative for Germany party came out on top in the state of Thuringia, with 32.8% of the vote.
The 11-year-old party also earned second place to the traditional conservative Christian Democratic Union party in the neighboring state of Saxony. Both states are in the former East Germany.
“No one can brush this off as a ‘protest’ vote anymore,” Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said in a statement late Sunday.
“Exactly 85 years after the start of World War II, Germany is in danger of becoming a different country again: more unstable, colder and poorer, less secure, less worth living in,” said Knobloch, a former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany who herself survived the Holocaust in hiding.
The election came just over a week since a Syrian refugee was arrested after a deadly stabbing spree at a festival in the city of Solingen, and only days after Germany resumed its program of deporting refugees convicted of crimes. The knife attack, in which three people were killed,
AfD stresses isolationism, takes an anti-EU and pro-Russian stance, and is accused of fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment. Some of its most extreme representatives have also belittled the Holocaust, saying that Germany has paid enough penance for the sins of an older generation.
Mass protests against the party took place earlier this year following revelations that the party had held a secret meeting at a lakeside villa to discuss plans to deport foreigners, including those who had become German citizens.
Prominent neo-Nazis attended the meeting, according to the news organization that broke the story, inducing painful echoes of the gath ering of Nazi leaders at nearby Wannsee in 1942 to devise a plan to deport and then murder Jews.
But while support for the AfD dipped in polls at the time, it soon rebounded and then accelerated. Now, it has achieved breakthrough results in state elections and raised concerns for next year’s national elections.
The party — whose Thuringen leader, Bjoern Hoecke, has been convicted twice of using a Nazi slogan to boost his party — is unlikely to form a ruling coalition in either state, since it is shunned by other parties. Still, it will have additional seats in the state legislatures and will have the numbers, particularly in Thuringia, to interfere with some governing decisions.
A far-left party, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance or BSW, also produced notable results, coming in third in Thuringia with 15.8% of the vote. Last month, the current head of the Central
Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, warned that the party, which has accused Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza, was “fueling hatred of Israel in Germany.”
The new election results bode ill for Germany’s future, Schuster said on Sunday.
“Can we recover from this hit?” Schuster wrote in a column in the Bild newspaper. “Our free society must not fall, especially in the face of Islamist terror. Unvarnished truths — honesty and sincerity — are needed, not populist pseudo-answers from radical parties.”
In Thuringia, the mainstream Social Democratic Party barely squeaked in, with 6.1%. Several parties, including the Greens and Free Democratic Party, received so few votes that they will not have any seats at all.
BSW also came in third in Saxony, with 11.8% of the vote, following the AfD with 30.6% and the CDU with a narrow win at 31.9%.
Younger voters overwhelmingly favored the AfD in this week’s elections, according to an
“The survivors are asking themselves: ‘Didn’t we do enough to teach, to tell, to show?” Christoph Heubner of the International Auschwitz Committee told the Guardian.
Some Jewish leaders say German politicians would do well to address the concerns apparently expressed by voters this weekend.
The election results in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony are a clear wake-up call to the centrist parties in Germany to listen to the real concerns and fears of the people,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said in a statement. “When half the population votes for parties on the extreme fringes, their problems must be addressed openly and honestly.”
Sunday was an “insanely sad” election day, German Jewish journalist Samira Lazarovic wrote on Facebook. She said her 96-year-old father compared the outcome to the opening salvo of World War II, exactly 85 years ago.
Lazarovic said it was urgent to reach out to younger voters. “It’s not that we know better than they, but we should shape the future together.”
Obviously, it wasn’t enough to take to the streets and protest against the far right, she added: “Populists all over the world have one thing in common. They mean exactly what they say and do everything they can to turn their words to deeds.”
p Attorney General Merrick Garland
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Headlines
U of Maryland won’t allow pro-Palestinian group to hold event on Oct. 7 after first permitting it
—
NATIONAL —
By Andrew Lapin | JTA
The University of Maryland has revoked a permit for pro-Palestinian groups to hold an event on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, following concerns from Jewish groups that such an event could glorify the Hamas killings.
According to the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, the planned event was a “vigil” to be held jointly with the school’s chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.
University President Darryll Pines announced the change in a letter to the school on Sunday, writing that “numerous calls have been made to cancel and restrict the events that take place that day.”
“As a university community, we acknowledge the significance of the anniversary of October 7 and recognize the horrific suffering it represents for people here on our campus and across the globe,” Pines wrote. Without naming any specific events, he said “only universitysponsored events that promote reflection” would be allowed that day, with “all other expressive events” pushed to either before or after the anniversary.
A university spokesperson declined further comment.
The news of the cancellation was celebrated by a coalition of campus Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including Maryland Hillel, Terps for Israel, the Jewish Student
Union and a campus chapter affiliated with the Israeli-American Council.
“October 7th, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, is a day of mourning for the Jewish and Israeli community,” the groups wrote on Instagram. “We are relieved that SJP will no longer be able to appropriate the suffering of our family and friends to fit their false and dangerous narrative.”
The campus conflict over Oct. 7 was an example of emerging fault lines across global Jewish and pro-Palestinian communities about what the anniversary means and how it should be memorialized. Jewish and pro-Israel groups hope to use the day to mourn the 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas on the day of the attacks. Meanwhile, proPalestinian groups including JVP view the date primarily as the start of Israel’s assault in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands to date — and are largely glancing over, or even supporting, the attacks themselves.
All this comes as universities are more generally bracing for the return of contentious student activism around Israel this fall. The Maryland saga also took place as news was emerging that six Israeli hostages in Gaza had been killed by Hamas.
Pines did not reference the hostages in his letter but said that he had ordered a safety assessment around the planned events and that campus police had determined “there is no immediate or active threat.”
Even before the deaths of the hostages, Maryland had quickly found itself the brunt of a pressure campaign from Jewish parents who argued both that allowing SJP to rally on the anniversary date was inappropriate, and that the school was failing to classify a range of pro-Palestinian rhetoric as antisemitic.
In their statement, Jewish groups said that having only official university events held on the anniversary — a decision that would presumably also prevent the Jewish groups from holding their own event — was
“not an ideal situation,” adding, “We wish that we could have utilized campus space to grieve together as a community.” A memorial event is being planned at the Maryland Hillel building, which is not governed by the university.
JVP’s Maryland chapter, which organized on the College Park campus after Oct. 7 and has aligned with SJP on other protests, said on Instagram it was “disappointed” and “angry” at the move. Both groups said the planned event would have been peaceful, and argued they had just as much right to use the day to mourn Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
“Some members of our campus Jewish community claim that October 7 is a day for Jewish grief and Jewish grief alone,” JVP wrote. “They consistently refuse to let us mourn the loss of 186,000 Palestinians murdered by Israel” — an estimate of the Gaza dead that is several degrees larger than the Gaza health ministry’s own, but one that Maryland’s SJP chapter, citing a letter about Gaza’s public health crisis published in the medical journal The Lancet, has promoted at other campus events.
In its own lengthy statement, SJP called the pressure campaign against the group “racist” and made no reference to Hamas or to the 1,200 Israelis murdered by the terror group on Oct. 7. Instead, the student group described the date as “one year since the Zionist entity began its most recent genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.”
SJP added that the university’s cancellation came “at the behest of Zionist pressure and threats” and said, “We honor the lives of all martyrs of this genocide, yet Zionists on this campus celebrate the death and destruction of Palestinian life.”
In a joint statement posted before the event’s cancellation, both groups asserted, “A vigil mourning the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives poses no threat to the Jewish community on our campus.” PJC
p The campus of the University of Maryland in College Park
Courtesy photo via JTA
Headlines
U of Michigan’s pro-Palestinian student leaders have vowed ‘No Business as Usual’ unless the university divests from Israel
The University of Michigan’s new student government campaigned on a simple message: Until the school agrees to divest from Israel, “No Business As Usual.”
Michigan’s Central Student Government is in charge of disbursing a $1.3 million annual budget, funded by student fees, among hundreds of student groups. But in the wake of its election victory in the spring, the Shut It Down Party is vowing to withhold funding from all student groups unless the university agrees to divest, JTA.org reported.
“If CSG cannot be used to support our pursuit of divestment, we will take decisive action to disrupt the status quo,” a March campaign statement from the party reads. “We will halt CSG activity and funding dispersal until the University of Michigan divests. We will Shut. It. Down.”
The university says it will circumvent the student government if it carries out the pledge.
US government spends record $454 million to secure religious institutions amid rising antisemitism
The federal government will spend nearly $150 million more this year than it did in 2023 to secure religious organizations, a jump aimed at addressing a rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7, according to JTA.
The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it had allocated $454.5 million this fiscal year toward the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security enhancements at houses of worship and religious organizations. It is the largest sum ever allocated toward the program and a significant increase from last year’s figure of $305 million.
“The funds announced today will provide communities across the country with vital resources necessary to strengthen their security and guard against terrorism and other threats,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who is Jewish, said in a statement. “The impact of these grants will be measured in lives saved and tragedies averted.”
Jewish organizations have historically championed the program, which began in 2005 with an allocation of $25 million and has since grown exponentially. Most of the funding has historically gone to Jewish institutions such as synagogues, day schools, and other religious organizations — a trend that continued this year, according to the Orthodox Union.
Emet Classical Academy, NYC Jewish school focused on the ‘great intellectual history of the West,’ is opening with 40 students
When the Tikvah Fund announced in December that it would be opening a new Jewish school that teaches Greek and Latin and eschews progressive educational values, it wasn’t clear just how many families such a niche option would attract.
A month later, Emet Classical Academy said
Today in Israeli History
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Sept. 6, 2007 — Israel destroys Syrian reactor
In Operation Orchard, eight Israeli aircraft destroy a suspected nuclear reactor, built with North Korean help, at the military site of Al Kibar in northeastern Syria. The U.S. government knows about the secret mission.
Sept. 7, 1865 — Rav Kook is born
Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, who promotes religious Zionism and writes acclaimed religious books, is born in Latvia. He becomes chief rabbi of Jerusalem in 1919 and serves as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine from 1921 to 1935.
Sept. 8, 1908 — Theologian Eliezer Berkovits is born
Liberal Orthodox theo logian Eliezer Berkovits is born in Nagyvarad, Transylvania. He serves as a rabbi and teaches in Germany, where he challenges Nazi lies, as well a s England, Australia and the United States. He retires to Israel in 1975.
Sept. 9, 1993 — PLO, Israel recognize each other Four days before they sign the self-rule agreement of the Oslo Accords in Washington, t he Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel formally recognize each other’s existence through an exchange of letters.
Sept. 10, 1923 —
Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery is born Three-time Knesset member Uri Avnery, who founds the Gush Shalom peace movement, is born in Germany. He fights in the 1948 war, then advocates a partnership with the Arab national movement.
it had received “hundreds of admissions inquiries from families,” many of them distressed about antisemitism and progressivism in their children’s schools in New York City amid the Israel-Hamas war, JTA.org reported.
Now, enrollment is set for Emet’s first year. Nearly 40 students are on the rolls across three grades — fewer than seemed possible earlier this year, but also more than the school originally planned to serve.
“Initially Emet planned to begin with only a small sixth grade and add a grade each subsequent year,” a representative from the school told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email. Instead, Emet is opening with fifth, sixth and ninth grade classes, “due to overwhelming interest.”
The new students come from both public and “elite secular private schools,” according to the spokesperson, who said enrollment is projected to triple next year and to reach 250 students in middle and high school by 2027.
The school is part of a movement to advance a “classical” education model that has risen in popularity in recent years, particularly among political conservatives. Proponents of classical education say it centers values and skills that have been wrongly deemphasized by progressive educators. Its critics charge that it advances a nostalgic worldview that gives short shrift to women, people of color and non-Western voices that deserve a place in the contemporary canon.
State comptroller: 44% of New York hate crimes in 2023 aimed at Jews
Data from the state of New York shows
that reported hate crimes for 2023 jumped 69% from 2019, according to JNS.
The office of State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a new analysis on Wednesday titled “The Concerning Growth of Hate Crime in New York State,” which broke down hate crime reports by intended target and compared the results with previous years.
“In 2023, nearly 44% of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88% of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims, the largest share of all such crimes,” the report said.
Berlin Holocaust memorial vandalized with antisemitic graffiti
A Berlin Holocaust memorial was vandalized with pro-Palestinian and antisemitic graffiti, local police said last week, JTA reported.
The graffiti, sprayed across the sandstone monument, said “Jews are committing genocide” in English. The words “Free Palestine,” accompanied by the image of a Palestinian flag, were sprayed on the ground below it. A local tour guide discovered the vandalism, according to the Juedische Allgemeine, a German Jewish publication.
The incident is the latest in which Holocaust memorials and Jewish sites have been hit with pro-Palestinian and antisemitic graffiti since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. Earlier this summer, a Seattle Holocaust museum was tagged with proPalestinian graffiti, and U.S. synagogues have also been defaced. PJC
Compiled
by Jarrad
Saffren
Sept. 11, 1921 — Moshav Nahalal is founded Moshav Nahalal, an agricultural settlement combining a kibbutz’s communal principles with private land ownership, is founded in the Jezreel Valley between Haifa and Afula. Its design of concentric circles becomes a model for others.
Sept. 12, 1977 — Singer Idan Raichel is born
Singer, composer and producer Idan Raichel is born in Kfar Saba. His music incorporates Middle Eastern, Ethiopian and other sounds through the award-winning Idan Raichel Project and solo projects. PJC
Headlines
Hillel:
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member Khari Mosley, who was Yitzy’s baseball coach.
Warwick said she became familiar with Yitzy when the City Council issued a proclamation in recognition of his life.
“As a parent, to have a child pass, it’s just beyond heartbreaking,” she said. “Anything you can do to support the family, you should. And, I have to say, it is so beautiful to see such a big crowd come out and so much community supporting the family for what will be difficult for the rest of their lives.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said the event celebrated not only Yitzy but the reimagining of the school.
“You see all the people coming out to celebrate this community asset, it’s part of the community’s health,” Gainey said. “Whenever you have an asset that people come to, they feel safe and respected. It’s important to be here as the mayor of the city and just say thank you for creating a feeling of community.”
In addition to the new sanctuary, the building’s renovations include a new structure added to the face of the school, a new roof, an upgraded HVAC system, a basement, a science lab and a second-story addition that
Attack:
is the new home of the girls’ high school, an elevator and making the whole building ADA compliant, Weinberg said.
Hillel’s Chief Executive Officer Daniel Kraut said the celebration was a long time coming, noting the vision for the project began in 2010.
“There was COVID in the middle, there was a lot of stuff,” Kraut noted. “We took a building that was built in 1958 and completely changed the entire campus. It’s exciting for our families, staff and teachers who are going to be able to teach in this state-of-the-art building. It’s great for alumni and the community.”
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worn by many protesting Israel’s war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack — law enforcement officials do not believe Buba was motivated by hate or antisemitism, according to Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
“They’ve initially determined it to be a random attack based on all of the evidence at the scene and knowledge of the defendant,” Brokos said. “If the investigation shows that this was motivated by hate, then additional charges can be added.”
For now, Buba is charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault, two misdemeanor counts of simple assault and reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and two summary charges of harassment.
Marcus said that he was alerted of the attack immediately after it happened and arrived on scene within minutes to provide comfort and support to the students assaulted. The police, he said, also were on the scene within minutes of the attack.
When the students were taken for medical care, Marcus returned to Hillel JUC where he related what happened.
“I said what we are doing here right now — being in community and celebrating Shabbat — our Jewish pride, our care and support of one another is the Jewish response to these moments,” he said.
Sara Weinstein, co-director of Chabad House on Campus in Pittsburgh, said the attack came at a stressful time for Jewish college students but praised their resilience.
“Difficulties and challenges bring out inner strength,” she said, “so, I definitely believe in the resilience and inner strength of Jewish students. We’re very proud of them.”
The students who were attacked, Weinstein said, defended themselves quickly and will continue to wear their yarmulkes and Star of David necklaces.
She said the attack was an opportunity for government and university officials to show moral clarity.
“The administration,” she said, “should designate appropriate measures on campus for conduct and activities that are to be tolerated or not tolerated.”
Weinstein said there is “too much leeway” in the area of freedom of speech on campus, and once comments turn antisemitic and start vilifying Israel, they should no longer be allowed.
Marcus, too, believes the constant vilification and demonization of Israel with hateful chants and rhetoric inevitably seeps into the culture and the behaviors of people with bad intentions.
Local elected officials, he said, should show moral clarity and take a stand to stamp out hate toward the Jewish community on campus and the wider community in general.
Pitt, along with Carnegie Mellon University, saw encampments and protests during the 2023-24 academic year that often included antisemitic and anti-Zionist chants, speeches and signs.
Chabad on Campus has called on Pitt to classify last week’s attack on the Jewish students as a hate crime.
In a statement following the attack, Pitt officials said they were grateful to the Pitt Police, who arrested the alleged perpetrator, and said he has no known affiliation to the university.
“Pitt leadership contacted Hillel University Center to offer support to our students and also connected with our partners at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh,” the university’s statement read. “We are grateful to our Pitt Police officers for their swift action, and our Student Affairs team for their ongoing student support.”
University officials said they did not believe there were any ongoing threats to the public stemming from the incident and added that “neither acts of violence or antisemitism will be tolerated.”
Marcus said that Carla Panzella, Pitt’s vice
The finished campus, he said, is a “showpiece” for the entire community.
Kraut noted that the school’s new elevator will be named after Raffi Breen, a student who recently passed away.
The celebration also included a breakfast that recognized the renaming of the girls’ high school as the Fayth Aronson-Berkowitz Girls High School.
Aronson-Berkowitz, who passed away in 2014, attended Hillel before moving to Baltimore, where she worked as an educator.
Her brother, Adam Aronson, said it is
provost of student affairs, came to Hillel JUC shortly after the attack took place offering support.
The Federation issued a statement of support as well, saying, “No Jewish student should be afraid or be under threat of violence while walking on or near campus. There is no place for antisemitism, hate or violence in our community. And while we are saddened by this, we are grateful for the ongoing collaboration with Hillel JUC, our university leaders, and law-enforcement.”
State and local officials were quick to issue statements in support of the students who were attacked.
“No matter what you look like, where you come from, or who you do or do not pray to, you deserve to feel safe on your campus here in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “As an investigation proceeds, let me be clear: antisemitism and hate-fueled violence of any kind has no place in our Commonwealth.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said that he was sending “prayers of comfort and healing” to the students.
“Our universities should be spaces where everyone feels safe to learn and welcomed to be their authentic selves,” Gainey wrote on X. “We will continue to extend our support to Pitt Police and local authorities as it is our hope to eradicate any act of violence in our city. CommUnity, may we remember that only love and understanding can drive out hate and violence.”
An anti-Israel protest dubbed “300+ Days of Genocide, 300+ Days of Resistance,” took place on Sept. 3 at Schenley Plaza, organized by Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Pittsburgh and another group not affiliated with the school. It was the first protest of the new academic year and was attended by nearly 100 people. A small group of counter-protesters also attended. Pittsburgh police were on hand and the protest remained peaceful.
A day before the rally, the Steel City Antifacist League, which promoted the protest, posted
special to have his sister’s name attached to the school.
“We’ve been involved in the school for more than 40 years,” he said. “My mother has been an administrator at the school, I graduated from the high school, my brother and sister graduated from the school. To have her name carry on in an educational setting is really something special.”
Speaking to those in attendance, Weinberg said that Hillel is “more than a school,” but “a home for the community.” He acknowledged the challenges the school has faced with the death of its students and emphasized the power of community.
“This school provides hope through which we can all live together, be together and be a part of the Hillel family,” he said.
Weinberg said the grand opening was invigorating.
“It’s an exciting moment for our school that our community has invested this much,” he said. “It’s really creating the future leaders of Jewish Pittsburgh and is very exciting.”
While the construction is complete, Hillel Academy continues to fundraise to help offset the costs.
PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
messages on social media warning that Hillel International “has created a coalition designed to identify and target anti-genocide demonstrators called ‘Operation Secureourcampuses,’” which “trains Zionist students, faculty and bad faith actors in ‘preparing for situational awareness, what to do if confronted by demonstrators and how to respond to potentially life threatening situations.’”
The Steel City Antifascist League advised protesters to dress in simple clothing, avoid behavior that might identify them, refuse to speak with police or give any identifiable information and to not bring any type of weapon.
The group condemned the alleged attack by Buba in an earlier Instagram post, but said that “the University of Pittsburgh’s collaboration with Hillel University and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is a dangerous action,” and accused the Federation and Hillel of being “anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.”
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Pittsburgh condemned the attack on the Jewish students, saying it rejects “all forms of hate, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and white supremacy.”
It also denounced what it called the “misappropriation of Palestinian symbols by individuals unaffiliated with the movement for a liberated Palestine.”
Marcus called the Sept. 3 demonstration “destructive and deeply disturbing.”
“It only adds to the environment of intimidation that Jewish students have to experience walking in and around their campus,” he said. “It in no way adds to the cause for peace.”
There is no place for antisemitism on campuses or in society, Marcus added.
“We will not let those that wish to vilify and demonize us change the steadfastness of our mission and vision to provide every Jewish student with meaningful Jewish life and pride in their Jewish identity,” he said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Hundreds danced and marched through the streets carrying “Yitzy’s Torah” to its new home at the Hillel Academy Yitzy Sutofsky Campus. Photo by David Rullo
Headlines
Continued from page 2
of Congregation Shaare Torah recited the Mi Sheberach prayer for healing. The JCC’s Rabbi Hindy Finman led the prayer for the state of Israel in Hebrew, followed by the JCC’s President and CEO Jason Kunzman reciting it in English.
Brian Eglash, the Federation’s senior vice president and a former IDF soldier, led the prayer for the IDF in Hebrew, while Jeff Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO, led the prayer in English.
Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s co-Director Chani Altein led the crowd in a recitation of Psalms, Ch. 27. Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom, on guitar, led the singing of “Acheinu,” a prayer calling for the release of captives, followed by “Hatikvah”
Baron:
Continued from page 3
press cover what’s actually happening in Gaza. Regardless of whatever the numbers are, there can be no doubt that there’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The evidence is immense that you can’t be moving millions of people out of their homes and engaging in constant bombing attacks and seeing food supplies dry up without knowing that there’s an enormous humanitarian crisis, and that undoubtedly large numbers of people have died. And so I think it’s very important that the press cover that too. That’s our job, to be on the ground as much as we possibly can, talking to all people, reflecting their different perspectives on this and shedding some light on the true complexity of what’s happening now in that region, and what the roots of that conflict are, and how badly it’s gone on for a very long period of time.
You know, my parents are from Israel, so it’s something that I followed for my entire life. But it’s a very complex story, and I think the press needs to reflect those complexities, and sometimes they do better at it, and sometimes they do worse at it. It’s a very difficult environment in which to operate.
Let’s talk about your book. You were living through this very unique time in history with Bezos taking over the Post and Trump rising to power and declaring a war on the media. At the time, did you
Gun Violence:
Continued from page 5
Germany said the gunman told him his actions were because of “voices” in his head.
The pastor implored attendees to not only recognize mental illness, but to work with authorities and develop appropriate protection.
“If you don’t take this seriously, then like the rabbi said, ‘You’re a fool,’” Germany said.
Throughout the program, clergy, elected officials and attorneys addressed various aspects of gun violence, hate crimes and protection.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song cited the U.S.
and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“This is what community looks like,” said Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, at the conclusion of the evening.
“Tonight, just as we have countless times over the last 11 months, our commu nity comprised of religious and secular, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, non-de nominational and unaffiliated, right-wing, left-wing and everything in between, Israeli, American and Jews from around the world, younger and older, we stand here together with our non-Jewish allies and friends, united through sorrow and in mourning,” Paris said. “We stand united with one voice to pray for the swift return of the remaining hostages inside of Gaza. We feel the pain for our tiny Jewish homeland that we have prayed for for thousands of years. We pray for the brave IDF soldiers and Israeli police
know that you would be putting it all into a book at some point?
have been injured and those who have been displaced from their homes. We pray as Israel continues to fight a seven-front war, as we fight our own battles right here in our own backyard. Our strength is in our unity.”
In an interview following the vigil, Fetterman, a vocal supporter of Israel and its right to self-defense, acknowledged the ongoing trauma of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and said that his support is resolute.
“I’m not a member of this community, and I can’t speak to the kinds of trauma, from Tree of Life, to 10/7, to the vandalism and to the students being attacked at Pitt a couple days ago — I can’t speak to that,” he said. “But what I can stand for is my voice, and that’s going to remain.” PJC
At some point, I realized that I might want to write a book because it was extraordinary what was happening. The family that had owned the Post for 80 years, the Graham family, decided to sell it. They sold it to one of the richest people in the world, and his goal was to try to transform the Post for a digital era and to make it a national and global media outlet. And then along comes Donald Trump, a candidate for president unlike any we’d ever seen before, and a president unlike any we’d ever seen before. And then, of course, during the campaign and during Trump’s presidency, there were huge conflicts between Trump and the Post, and as a result, Trump and Bezos. Thus the title, “Collision of Power.”
I thought it was pretty clear that this was historic for the country, historic for the Post, and historic for the press overall. And I was in the middle of it. I could offer a perspective from within a newsroom of trying to cover Donald Trump, trying to transform this newsroom, having my news organization owned by one of the wealthiest people in the world. You know, we were being covered on a regular basis, but I didn’t feel that the coverage fully or always accurately reflected what was happening inside and why it was happening. So I think, for the sake of history, it was a story worth telling, and that there was really only one person who could or would tell that story, and that was me. It wasn’t going to be written by Jeff Bezos. It wasn’t likely to be written by our publisher, who wasn’t involved in the day-to-day news coverage. And so the only person who could write it was myself.
Code and explained what constitutes a hate crime.
“ These laws matter and can make a difference in the justice we bring,” she said.
North Braddock Mayor Cletus Lee thanked the more than 100 attendees for recognizing the need to “have more security — not only for our community but [also] the churches in our community.”
“I’m glad that you all came here so we can try to work together and put some things together for our community,” he added.
State Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-34) praised attendees of the interfaith gathering for working together, but said it’s critical
officers who put their lives on the line every day. We pray for the victims, those who have lost family members, those who
I felt that, for the sake of history, it should be written. And so that’s why I kept track of what was going on, and why ultimately I decided, yeah, this is a book that should be written.
You’ve had such a storied career. Can you tell me what you’re most proud of?
The story that I’m most proud of is what we did in Boston with disclosing the cover-up of decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. And the reason I’m the most proud of that is because it affected the lives of ordinary people. It wasn’t about politicians. It was about ordinary people who had been abused, whose voices were not being heard — they weren’t being heard by politicians, they weren’t being heard by law enforcement, and they weren’t being heard by the press. We did the investigation that was required, that was needed. We held the church accountable for a decades-long cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy, and that story has had an enormous impact, not just within the Boston archdiocese, but within the Catholic Church in the United States, which has implemented a series of reforms at long last, and also had an enormous impact throughout the world. And it motivated the press, both within this country and in other countries, to investigate more thoroughly abuse within the church and the cover-up of that abuse, and also abuse in other institutions. It’s had an enormous impact on the way that institutions have responded to allegations of abuse. They know that they can’t engage in a cover-up the way that the Catholic Church did, and so many institutions have now
to remember what matters most.
“Focus on the work that’s being done here today,” she said. Remember that “terrible” and “dramatic” events will capture more attention than the “everyday work that people do, just grinding it out afternoon by afternoon.”
Volunteering with area youth, or working to ensure a “community nonprofit is funded,” will likely never receive the “clicks or views or eyeballs on screens,” Salisbury continued. “But I would argue it’s much more important — that everyday work that people do in our communities to make p eople come together, to make people feel safe.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
been much more responsive.
I think that the investigation of the Catholic Church was clearly the precursor to other investigations that have been conducted by the press, whether they be investigations of the Boy Scouts or the Southern Baptist Convention, and frankly, a precursor to the whole MeToo movement. Other people have said that, so I’m proud of that, because it had an enormous impact on how institutions deal with abuse and it motivated a lot of news organizations — particularly when the movie came out quite a few years later, in 2015. It reminded publishers, owners and editors that they need to have investigative reporting, that it is core to what we do, that the public expects that of us, wants that of us. They do want us to hold powerful institutions accountable when they engage in wrongdoing. And the more powerful the institution, the greater the capacity to commit wrongdoing on a large scale and to cover it up. So I think it’s had an enormous impact on the field of journalism, and it revived a lot of interest in investigative reporting, which had really atrophied before that. It surged after Watergate, but then it atrophied in more recent years because it takes a lot of time, takes a lot of money, doesn’t guarantee a result and doesn’t always end up with producing a lot of digital traffic. And so many of these organizations had really de-emphasized their investigative reporting, but I think they’ve come to realize that this work, if properly done, will be supported by the public. PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
violence and safety.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
p Marjorie Manne (at podium) and Karen Gal-Or, who conceived of the vigil, pay tribute to the murdered hostages. Sen. John Fetterman stands in respect.
Photo by Toby Tabachnick
A commitment to accountability
Guest Columnist
Since our founding in 1895, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh has been relentlessly committed to improving the quality of life for individuals and community. Through it all, the JCC has strived to be more than just a place to gather. It’s a hub of connection and a catalyst for positive change.
But as we look to the future, we must ask ourselves: Are we doing enough? Are we living up to our true potential? In the face of the financial and societal challenges that exist, not just for the JCC but across the community, I believe that the answer is no, and that we stand at a pivotal moment where the choices we make today will shape the future of our JCC and more importantly, the future of our entire community.
The data speaks for itself. JCCs across North America are the biggest platform for community engagement. In aggregate, we are a $1.6 billion enterprise with 1.5 mi llion people walking through our doors each week, 500,000 of whom are our non-Jewish friends and neighbors. About 30,000 children are enrolled in our early childhood centers and we have 57,000 fulltime, part-time and seasonal employees. Within our respective communities, each JCC represents a learning laboratory for how we can build a stronger and more inclusive future for all.
As I enter my second year in the role of
CEO of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, I am committing to go beyond what is comfortable and familiar. We have the potential to be a transformative force in our community — but potential is not enough. We must open ourselves to taking risks, listening to those who feel unheard, and being willing to lead on the issues that matter most.
energy in diversifying our revenue streams. To drive these priorities, we will continue to develop and implement shared practices across the organization that allow for a more human-centered and collaborative approach to how we go about our work and show up for our constituents.
Are we doing enough?
We must invest in our future — through innovative programming, enhanced facilities and a commitment to social responsibility.
This past year our professional and volunteer leadership came together to clarify our priorities and our approach for the next several years.
First, we must retain and grow our amazing team of talent, enveloping them in a cocoon of care to ensure they are afforded every opportunity to operate at the top of their license and that they know how much they are appreciated every shift and every day.
Second, we must enhance the customer experience turning the ordinary into defining moments that are both memorable and meaningful.
A nd finally, we have to find our way back to stable financial footing. This will require a more efficient and effective use of our facilities, responsive and innovative programs and services, and renewed
Our community is strong, but we know it can be stronger. The challenges we’ve faced in recent years — from the 2018 synagogue attack to the global pandemic to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel and rising antisemitism — have tested our resilience. But they have also illuminated our strengths. We’ve seen how adaptable, compassionate and innovative we can be when we are called upon to support one another.
Now, we have the opportunity to build on these strengths, to create a JCC that is not just a hub of activity, but a true engine of community-building. This means expanding our programs and services to meet the evolving needs of our members, ensuring that everyone — from our youngest children to our most senior adults — feels connected and valued.
Are we doing enough?
Strengthening our community isn’t just about doing more. It’s about being more. It’s about embracing the full diversity of our community and making sure that everyone has a place at our table, inviting them to join us and to be a part of something larger than themselves. Our JCC must be a beacon of inclusivity, where all feel welcome, regardless of background, ability or circumstance.
So, how do we redefine what is possible? We do it by being bold. By not just responding to the needs of today, but by anticipating the needs of tomorrow. We must invest in our future — through innovative programming, enhanced faci lities and a commitment to social responsibility.
We also do it by listening — listening to our members, to our neighbors and to the broader community. We need to understand their hopes, their concerns and their dreams, because it’s through understanding that we can truly serve and uplift our community.
And finally, we do it together. None of this is possible without you — our members, our donors, our volunteers and our partners. Your passion, energy and de dication are what will propel us forward.
I invite all of you to join us on this journey and I ask, what do you think is possible? Together, we can build a community where everyone belongs, where e veryone thrives and where the possibilities are endless. PJC
Jason Kunzman is president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.
We might not like it, but local politicians have a right to criticize Israel
Guest Columnist
There was a time not so long ago when local politicians went out of their way to defend and protect the Jewish community — a time when, after a horrific mass shooting, our Pittsburgh community rallied around us, supported us, offered us love and sympathy, and were our shield. That time has more or less passed for two reasons.
First, Israel’s heavy-handed and endless war in Gaza, in reaction to the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, has rendered it unpopular across the globe, including in Pittsburgh. And second, the Pittsburgh Jewish community’s reaction to local politics has created a chasm between us and several of our elected leaders. Some
of that distance was inevitable, as some of our local leaders have been aggressive, imprecise and hurtful in the statements they have made about the war in Gaza. But
maintaining a strong relationship to local politicians.
It would be wise for local Jewish leaders, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh,
It is an ugly truth that this war is widely unpopular and has been unnecessarily dragged out by a prime minister desperate to cling to power, but it is a truth, nonetheless.
some of that distance has been caused by our Jewish community’s knee-jerk desire to reflexively defend Israel from criticism, even when that criticism is legitimate. That attitude is counterproductive to the long-term goal of the Jewish community
and even your average Chronicle reader, to exercise caution with the language they use in public statements and to be circumspect when condemning elected officials on social media. We should each think about the long-term relationships we are forging
www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
with our local politicians when we are critical or defensive regarding their public statements or the political expression of members of their staff, even when we dislike those statements.
In the latest round of controversy, it was revealed that some staff members of both Mayor Ed Gainey and Councilmember Barb Warwick were involved in the petition to get a referendum on the November ballot to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel. Some quarters of the Jewish community were outraged by this and demanded firings and condemnations by politicians. Although this proposed referendum was horribly flawed in a myriad of ways, and I was glad it was defeated, I was profoundly uncomfortable with the rhetoric and the dialogue around it.
I write to remind everyone in Pittsburgh, particularly Jews, that we make our lives here. We rely on politicians to run the city and fill the potholes and care for the homeless
Please see Goodman, page 13
Jason Kunzman
Rabbi Mark Goodman
Opinion
Chronicle poll results: Jewish-themed books
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “How many Jewish-themed books have you read in the last year?” Of the 179 people who responded, 19% said none; 42% said 1-3; 19% said 4-6; and 20% said 7 or more. Comments were submitted by 26 people. A few follow.
We read weekly parsha commentaries and books related to Jewish history, Israel and Zionism.
Is anti-Zionism antisemitism?
Reading this genre keeps me more attuned to my Jewish soul.
I am not a book reader in general. I do read articles dealing with Jews and Jewish issues.
Most have World War II Holocaust themes.
I’m in the Chronicle Book Club and the selections are excellent! I’m also in a book club at my temple.
Goodman:
Continued from page 12
and collect the taxes. We break bread and do business with our neighbors, regardless of their religion. We don’t have to agree with them, but we need to be thoughtful and careful in the way we defend Israel so that we retain allies and maintain relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. If we condemn every politician, if we scream “antisemitism!” at the slightest whiff of criticism toward Israel and the Netanyahu government’s prosecution of the war, the net effect on the Pittsburgh Jewish community will be burned bridges and increased isolation.
You may not like it, but politicians and
their staff have the right to speak out in favor of a cease-fire, and the attempt to squelch their speech is a bad look for our community. Many Jews in Pittsburgh, the U.S., Israel and around the world are in favor of cease-fire since it seems evident to many that the objectives sought by Israel’s government toward Gaza can be obtained only through diplomacy rather than war. Many folks, including Jews, are appalled by the civilian casualties and humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Just as it is legitimate for Jews to be critical of Israel’s clumsy handling of this war, which has led to the unnecessary deaths of hostages and a potentially endless reoccupation of Gaza, it is just as legitimate for politicians or average American citizens to do so.
I sometimes have trouble finding Jewish books at the library. I guess that since some of them aren’t bestsellers, they don’t buy them.
My Judaica library comprises more than several thousand volumes.
I have always read Holocaust-related books because it is vital that we remember that horrific time in history and in the life of Jews. To remember is not to forget — and to forget would be an abomination to the memories of the 6 million.
I belong to a Jewish book club. We question what makes a book Jewish. The topic? The author? The characters in the book?
Before this war broke out, hundreds of thousands of Israelis were in the streets demanding Netanyahu’s resignation for his administration’s anti-democratic power grab. As this war drags on, tens of thousands of Israelis are protesting the aimless violence and continued injustice toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They demand that the Israeli government focus on getting back the hostages and entering into a cease-fire.
My steadfast support of Israel includes my firm belief that Israel can and should act morally and with justice. In this war, it has fallen far short of those expectations. It is an ugly truth that this war is widely unpopular and has been unnecessarily
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Poetry Contest
Our readers are invited to submit poems to the Chronicle’s Poetry Contest. Winning entries will be published in our Oct. 4 issue. The theme is “One year since Oct. 7.”
Where are the Jews?
Three winners will each receive a $54 gift card to Pinsker’s Books and Judaica, supplied by an anonymous donor. All submissions must be received no later than Sept. 20.
In over 100 years of film and decades of television, we Jews have rarely been portrayed well. How is it that while we have been living in a time and place where we have been the most free to practice our religion and celebrate our beautiful culture and traditions — and where we have been both intricately involved with and extremely influential in Hollywood since its inception — we are still depicted in stereotypical and comic fashion, and our religious leaders in an irreverent light?
And now we have
“Between the Temples,” which was reviewed positively in the Chronicle as “the most mainstream Jewish movie of the year” (“Jason Schwartzman plays a small-town cantor with a spiritual crisis in ‘Between the Temples,’” via JTA, Aug. 23). Yet the acting
Guidelines: Poems must be submitted to newsdesk@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Please type “Poetry Contest” in the subject line. The poem must be in a Microsoft Word file. No PDFs or handwritten entries will be accepted.
My library book groups have read quite a few books of Jewish content over the years, and since I am the only Jewish person in the groups I have to “translate” anything that they don’t understand. It usually leads to much discussion. I love it!
What is a Jewish-themed book, really? If it has Jewish values in it — even if the characters and/or events are not specifically Jewish — then it can be a Jewish-themed book, especially when it is discussed at a book group. And this is especially true of children’s books. PJC
— Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question:
Have you attended a vigil or other Jewish community event related to Israel in the past week? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle. org to respond. PJC
dragged out by a prime minister desperate to cling to power, but it is a truth, nonetheless. To attempt to silence domestic voices of peaceful protest is to quiet the boy who screamed “the emperor has no clothes!”
It is right and moral to support Israel while simultaneously being critical of Israel. We can believe both in Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, and recognize that the Netanyahu administration’s continuation of this war is deserving of criticism. War is full of death, but let it not be the death of nuance. PJC
Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman serves as a rabbi in Pittsburgh and in Erie, Pennsylvania.
• One submission per author.
• Must include the author’s name, address, phone number and email address.
• Poem should reflect the theme of “One year since Oct. 7.”
• Unpublished poems only. PJC
was poor. The plot was confusing and difficult to follow. The dialogue was puerile and vulgar and, most definitely, the Jewish characters were portrayed in negative stereotypical fashion.
Where are all the influential Jews in film and television who will have the courage and depth of feeling for our Judaism to portray us better, to ensure an honest representation of our beautiful culture and religion — true portraits of us that don’t play into stereotypes or play down to expectations? Let’s show the general public — and ourselves — the good stuff!
We 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. Send letters to: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org or Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence, we cannot reply to every letter.
Howard Meyerwitz Pittsburgh
Life & Culture
Honey-glazed roasted carrots
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
Irecently served these carrots along with Cornish hens and wild rice for Shabbat dinner, and thought this would be a great recipe to share as we move into the fall holiday season and are looking for ways to incorporate honey.
I love the flavor and texture of pan-roasted root vegetables. The honey glaze gives just enough sweetness, and a little Aleppo pepper adds a slightly smoky flavor that makes the taste pop. I cook and garnish food with Aleppo pepper more than any other pepper; it’s available with a kosher hechsher on Amazon. The pepper flakes are larger than a ground red pepper or paprika, so the flavor doesn’t saturate the food entirely.
For this recipe, buy small carrots that have the leafy stems attached.
Ingredients:
1 pound small carrots
2 teaspoons oil
Sprinkle of sea salt
3-4 tablespoons honey
1/16 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or a sprinkle of coarse black pepper
Wash and peel the carrots and set them aside to dry on a paper towel, which will
oven rack in the upper third of the oven. (Avoid using the highest slot for the rack so that the parchment paper lining the pan doesn’t burn.)
Line a small baking sheet with a lip on all sides with parchment paper.
Lay the carrots in a single layer on the pan, brush them with oil and sprinkle them lightly with salt. You will have more control over the amount of oil added if you use a pastry brush to apply the oil.
Place the pan into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
Honey spreads more easily when it’s warm. Instead of warming honey in a pan, I measure it into a bowl or measuring cup and put it on the back of the stovetop to warm as the carrots roast; just be careful when reaching for the bowl, as it will be too hot to touch with bare hands. Adding the honey near the end will ensure that it doesn’t turn black and burn.
Remove the tray from the oven and turn the carrots over, then brush them with honey and sprinkle with pepper.
Reduce the heat of the oven to 400 F and put the carrots back in the oven for 10 more minutes.
Test one of the larger carrots with a fork. It should be fork-tender but still have a firmness to it. If the carrots are too hard, you can roast them for an additional 5-10 minutes, but stay near the oven so the honey doesn’t burn.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow the carrots to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
You can brush the carrots again with the melted honey at the bottom of the pan once they’re on the serving plate.
These will look beautiful on your table and can be made in advance and carefully warmed before serving.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
p Honey-glazed roasted carrots
Photo by Wade Grann
Life & Culture
‘Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life’ encourages curiosity and introspection
By Emma Riva | Special to the Chronicle
Anyone who’s searched for meaning, longed for spiritual connection, or had big, unanswerable questions about their place in the world can find something in the work of Louise Silk. And the intimacy of her art invites you into her mind and heart.
“Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life,” an exhibit at the Heinz History Center, is a full career retrospective that allows visitors to see this renowned fiber and textile artist’s life in its context.
Those at the Sept. 1 opening had the opportunity to speak with Silk, who lives and works on Pittsburgh’s South Side. Though she’s had many exhibitions over the years, “A Patchwork Life” is the most extensive.
“A Patchwork Life” displays some of Silk’s earliest works, and Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center, noted that one of the exhibition’s central threads is an artist resolving tensions around their identity. Silk began quilting after reading an article in Ms. Magazine about how the male-dominated fine art world neglected fabric, textile and craft, leaving an opening for female artists to create something new. But what started as an interest grew into a deeper pursuit.
“Louise started quilting reactively, by doing this kind of craft other people weren’t doing, but then by the present day, you see her pushing herself outward proactively,” Lidji said.
Part of that tension and resolution is that Silk didn’t immediately see a connection between her Judaism and her quilting practice. “I was convinced that Jews didn’t know how to quilt,” she said. But she found resonance in Jewish mysticism and gematria (Jewish numerology) that began to show up in her textiles.
Fabric is by nature soft, but a strength comes through in Silk’s work. As you proceed through the retrospective, Silk’s confidence in her own voice and in her Jewish identity becomes more apparent. Silk became interested in Jewish feminism in the 1980s, when many adult Jewish women were celebrating their bat mitzvahs for the first time. Getting access to spiritual life as an adult let Silk reflect more deeply on her rela tionship to Judaism and how it could show up in her work. There’s a sense of puzzling and questioning — very Jewish values — in Silk’s textiles. Colors and patterns sometimes clash but ultimately come together to create cohesive visual tapestries.
One of the exhibition’s largest program ming points is “The Witness Quilt,” a collection of pieces of fabric that Silk and a team of volunteers are stitching together throughout the show’s run. Guests also can participate in the project by bringing in pieces of their own fabric that have personal significance. In February 2025, the History Center will begin dismantling the quilt and visitors will be able to take pieces of it with
them. Each patch gets a folk saying stitched onto it, some Jewish, some feminist, some simply Americana.
“The Witness Quilt” also serves as a reminder that much of the artwork in the gallery exists in someone’s personal collection and is meant to be loved and interacted with individually. One piece, “Prologue: A Spiritual Alphabet,” is even draped across the owner’s bed in her home, Lidji said.
“A Patchwork Life” brought to mind “Take Me (I’m Yours),” a 2016-2017 exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum comprised of interactive art informed by sharing and communal space as a Jewish value. Echoes of fellow Jewish textile and mixed media artist Judy Chicago show up in Silk’s work in that both artists show a playful, inquisitive spirit along with an unwavering commitment to asking big questions of power structures. Both Silk and Chicago tap into the fact that asking questions like “Why do things have
to be this way?” is a form of resistance but also curiosity.
The number of people at the opening who knew Silk was a testament to how involved in the community she has been over the years. I turned to someone behind me while I was in line to speak with Silk, and asked if they knew her work well. The attendee laughed and said: “I’m her son.” Another visitor in line spoke to the fact that Silk had helped her parents emigrate from the Soviet Union through the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
As another way of extending “A Patchwork Life” outward into the community, Lidji has four young Jewish artists in Pittsburgh creating programming for four upcoming Jewish holidays. Oreen Cohen will produce work for Chol HaMoed Sukkot, Rosabel Rosalind will produce work for Chanukah, Lydia Rosenberg will produce work for Tu b’Shevat and Olivia Devorah Tucker will
produce work for Purim.
Tucker said that being part of the exhibition is a “deep commitment to the lineage of Louise and her generation, being able to recognize the incredible artists who’ve made it possible to do the work I do. It’s made it possible for me as a trans-femme artist to bring both my queerness and my Judaism into my art’s practice and into my community. I feel blessed with the incredible vision and practice that Louise has done and continues to do.”
Tucker noted that language around LGBTQ+ people’s or women’s role in the Jewish community often is “acceptance,” and that Silk’s work “demands to be in the space.”
“A Patchwork Life” can speak to the tension between secular Jewish life, which many participate in every day, and the deeper spiritual questions and personal relationship with God that might feel lacking.
“Louise was really connected to the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, but spiritually she felt adrift. That’s a big question in the Jewish community, and Jewish art can be an easier entry point for some people. I hope that people who’ve struggled to find their place can see that,” Lidji said.
On how people who might question their place in Judaism can deepen their relationship to it, Silk said: “For me it ended up being through my artwork. But I think someone might have some other passion in their everyday life. It could be something like cooking. Take that, then find that connection. It’s a lot easier to see the separation in things, to think ‘This is not Jewish,’ or ‘This can’t be Jewish.’ But doing the work to find the connection is what’s special.”
The “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” exhibit, which runs through April 6, 2025, is supported by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and The Fine Foundation with additional support from The Heinz Endowments, Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District . PJC
Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
— ART —
p “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” exhibit at the Heinz History Center
Photo courtesy of Eric Lidji
p A piece by Louise Silk exhibited in “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” Photo courtesy of Eric Lidji
Life & Culture
Lend your ear to Pittsburghers’ podcasts
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Seeking to expand your knowledge with help from local experts? These three Pittsburghers have podcasts about topics close to home — even if the subjects have little to do with Pittsburgh.
Whether covering Israeli culture, Orthodox Jewish dating or fictionalized stories bolstered by personal memory, podcasters Jake Gillis, Sarah Levine and Frank Schiffman have hours of content for Pittsburghers and beyond.
Gillis, a University of Pittsburgh graduate who moved to Israel five years ago, is the founder and host of “Sababoosh,” a media site and podcast about Israeli culture, food, music, literature and cinema.
Speaking by phone from Tel Aviv, Gillis described his work as offering listeners — primarily English speakers in the Diaspora — a “light approach” to Israel.
When seeking information about Israel, it’s easy to become saturated with stories that are “heavy and difficult to read or to listen to,” he said. The problem with wearying pieces is they often preclude one’s ability to see all the “lovable” aspects of Israel, like its music, movies, television or even “Israeli books in Hebrew.”
Before moving to Israel, Gillis was a longtime podcast listener.
The war, he said, prompted him to start his own media outlet months ago.
“I thought this is a heavy and scary time, but this could be the right time,” he said. “I’m living in Tel Aviv — it’s easier to access some of the people who I was thinking of having as guests — and I just got started.”
Along with weekly Substack articles on topics ranging from Israeli architecture to television shows, “Sababoosh” boasts interviews with cultural figures, including screenwriter Dorit Rabinyan, chef Adeena Sussman and author Etgar Keret.
The former Pittsburgh resident said he spends between 10-20 hours a week on the project. His biggest expenses are studio fees; and though podcasting doesn’t require one to utilize optimal equipment, Gillis believes the investment is worthwhile.
“Early on, if I was gonna have a guest that really had a lot of experience, or was established in their field, I didn’t want to necessarily bring them into my apartment with a microphone,” Gillis said.
Renting studio space ranges in price depending on location. For Gillis, the money is well spent. He values his product and hopes to make “Sababoosh” profitable someday.
Former Squirrel Hill resident Sarah Levine hosts “Good for Shidduchim.” The podcast covers humorous and painful topics within the world of Orthodox Jewish dating. Along with her brother-in-law, co-host Max Landesman, Levine addresses singles’ events, costs of dating, parent involvement, monogamy, eating disorders and messaging pangs. Interviewees include relationship coaches, matchmakers and therapists.
Speaking by phone from Jerusalem, Levine said the podcast — “like a lot of good
ideas” — was prompted by a conversation around a Shabbat table.
Levine had just gotten married to Landesman’s brother and listened to her new relative bemoan the dating process. She, too, remembered the challenges experienced, as well as what it was like being considered an “older” bride — Levine was 32 at the time of her wedding — she said.
Talking — or “commiserating” — led to an idea. Landesman suggested the two relatives make a podcast. He was experienced with audio and editing. Levine was an open-minded neophyte. They agreed to do one episode.
It went well, Levine said, so they tried another, and then another, and kept going.
After 32 episodes, “Good for Shidduchim” just wrapped its first season.
The podcast hasn’t eliminated ghosting, terrible matchmakers or disastrous first dates, but it has emboldened a community who “share the same feelings as we do,” Levine said.
There’s a mutual sense that Orthodox Jewish dating operates with difficulties, but giving voice to topics doesn’t mean there’s agreement between the podcasters. After selecting an episode subject, neither Levine nor Landesman knows where the other will land once the mics turn on. Levine is occasionally surprised by her co-host’s take, but t hat adds to the educational experience, she said.
“I learn from my brother-in-law,” she continued. “He puts into perspective the day-to-day of what it’s like dating.” At the same time, Levine is trying not to “bring more jadedness toward it,” she said. “It was a big part of my life and I did grow from it.”
not, learn from the podcast and she pointed to
schedule to multiple times per week. With Levine recently moving to Israel, and her brother-in-law in the U.S., it will be a challenge but the commitment is there, she said.
Each episode of “Good for Shidduchim” lasts between 35-60 minutes. Preparing, recording and editing can take another five to seven hours. Levine credits Landesman with handling the podcast’s editing and technical aspects.
As the second season gets underway, listeners can expect new topics, new guests and a push for more statistics and sciencebacked data, Levine said.
The latter is in response to a phenomenon of sorts: Some of her husband’s single friends — many of whom are in their mid to upper 30s — have asked her to set them up with someone 10 to 15 years younger.
The request often has to do with people’s thoughts about fertility, said Levine, who before moving to Israel several months ago spent seven years working as a nurse in critical care settings, including NYU Langone Tisch Hospital’s neonatal intensive care.
“I really want to have a fertility specialist talk about women’s reproduction and women’s fertility in one episode, and then men’s reproduction and men’s fertility in another episode,” she said.
With the new season set to start, “Good for Shidduchim” hopes to attract more sponsors.
In the meantime, the fact that a conversation that started around a Shabbat table continues growing is “humbling,” Levine said. “There’s a lot more to learn.”
Upper St. Clair resident Frank Schiffman
The self-designation makes sense —
Schiffman records in a third-floor cupboard.
efore chronicling his memories and creating fictionalized tales under the “OutOf-Place” banner, Schiffman spent decades a s a public relations professional. He produced and acted in training films and live shows. The experiences introduced him to the importance of sound and studios, but Schiffman said he still knew nothing about software, posting or platforms.
For much of Schiffman’s life he wanted to “be an entertainer,” he said.
“Out-Of-Place” affords that opportunity. To date, he’s completed 14 episodes. Recordings vary in length. Some are as short as 12 minutes. Others span more than an hour. Each episode relies on a script and the drafting process can take months, he said.
Schiffman records with a Blue Yeti microphone and edits with Audacity software. He employs deliberate pacing and occasionally relies on actors to voice different parts. Collectively, “Out-Of-Place” is reminiscent of old-time radio shows.
“It’s kind of modeled after that,” he said. “I want the audience to listen to it and feel like they’re right there.”
His target demographic is people “in their 50s, 60s and older,” he said.
Schiffman is proud of his product. Along with encouraging listeners to check out “Out-Of-Place,” he hopes people give podcasting a try.
“The internet is your friend and so is YouTube,” he said. The key to beginning is simply beginning, he continued. “Go get the equipment — get minimal equipment — use your computer. You’d laugh if you came over and I showed you how little I need to get up and running.”
For those thinking about starting, there’s no need to buy top-of-the-line tools, he said. “I started off with a microphone that was probably 30 bucks in my first podcast, and I just sat there and played with it.”
From hours of online reading and tutorial viewing he learned how to maximize microphone usage and make the most out of software.
Schiffman is proud to be a storyteller. Some of his recorded anecdotes are fictional, but his final message rings true: “If a guy that started this at 66 years old is out there doing this part-time, anybody else that has the gumption, that wants to do it, can do it.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Jake Gillis in studio with Israeli short story king Etgar Keret. Photo courtesy of Jake Gillis
p Frank Schiffman records a story for Out-of-Place. Photo courtesy of Frank Schiffman
p Sarah Levine is co-host of “Good for Shidduchim.” Photo courtesy of Sarah Levine
Life & Culture
Rare First Temple-era stone seal unearthed in Jerusalem
By JNS Staff
Arare and unique First Temple-era stone seal inscribed with a name in paleo-Hebrew script has been uncovered near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.
The ancient black stone seal, which was unearthed in an excavation by the Temple Mount’s southern wall, is believed to date back 2,700 years, and was used by a senior official in the Kingdom of Judah’s administration, the state-run archaeological body said.
“The seal, made of black stone, is one of the most beautiful ever discovered in excavations in ancient Jerusalem, and is executed at the highest artistic level,” said Yuval Baruch and Navot Rom, who directed the excavations with funding from the City of David Foundation.
The object — which is engraved with reverse script — served its owner both as an amulet and as a signature for legal documents and certificates, according to the IAA.
p A 2,700-year-old seal inscribed in paleo-Hebrew with the name “LeYeho’ezer ben Hosh’ayahu”—“For Yeho’ezer son of Hosh’ayahu”
“This is further evidence of the reading and writing abilities that existed in this period,” said Baruch. “Contrary to what may be commonly thought, it seems that literacy in this period was not the realm only of society’s elite. People knew how to read and write — least at the basic level, for the needs of commerce.”
When Hosh’ayahu died, his son Yeho’ezer inherited the seal, and he “added his name
“The seal, made of black stone, is one of the most beautiful ever discovered in excavations in ancient Jerusalem, and is executed at the highest artistic level.”
–
YUVAL
BARUCH AND NAVOT ROM
It has a hole drilled through its length so that it could be strung onto a chain and be worn around the neck.
The artifact is engraved with the words “LeYeho’ezer ben Hosh’ayahu” — “For Yeho’ezer son of Hosh’ayahu” — in paleo-Hebrew script.
Experts said that the seal is an extremely rare and unusual discovery.
“This is the first time that a winged ‘genie’ — a protective magical figure — has been found in Israeli and regional archaeology,” said Filip Vukosavović, IAA archaeologist and Assyriologist. “Figures of winged demons are known in the Neo-Assyrian art of the 9th-7th centuries BCE, and they were considered a kind of protective demon.”
The seal was apparently made by a local craftsman, “a Judahite, who produced the amulet at the owner’s request. It was prepared at a very high artistic level,” Vukosavović said.
The name Yeho’ezer appears in the Bible (Chron. I 12:7) in its abbreviated form, Yo’ezer, one of King David’s fighters. In the Book of Jeremiah (43:2), which depicts events thought to have occurred during the same period the seal was in use, the name “Azariah ben Hosh’aya” appears. “Hosh’aya” is the abbreviated form of Hosh’ayahu.
and his father’s name on either side of the demon,” in an effort to “directly appropriate to himself the beneficial qualities he believed the talisman embodied as a magical item,” the archaeologists believe.
The paleo-Hebrew inscription “was done in a sloppy manner,” unlike the “careful engraving of the demon,” indicating that it could have been “Yeho’ezer himself who engraved the names on the object,” said Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who took part in the research.
“The spectacular and unique find opens another window for us into the days of the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple period, and attests to that administration’s international connections,” said Israeli Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu. “In doing so, it demonstrates the importance and centrality of Jerusalem already 2,700 years ago.
“It is impossible not to be moved by such an unmediated and direct encounter with a chapter of our past, a time in which the First Temple stood in all its glory.”
Additional information about the seal was scheduled to be presented to the public at the annual “City of David Research Conference,” on Wednesday, Sept. 4, in Jerusalem. PJC
Wednesday, September 18
7-8:30 pm • JCC Squirrel Hill • Levinson Hall
What is Life Like Being an Israeli Arab? How Do You Create a Shared Society with Israeli Jews?
Mohammad Darawshe is also Director of Strategy, Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society. He will share personal stories and discuss his work with Givat Haviva and its impact on Jewish-Arab relations to foster dialogue and mutual respect in Israel and beyond. Darawshe lives in Iksal, Israel with his wife and four children.
Free and Open to All Appropriate for high school and up Q&A to follow
Part of A Season of Hope Series
Photo by Eliyahu Yanai, City of David
Celebrations
Bar Mitzvah
Reuben Yadin Goldschmidt, son of Andrea and Ariel Goldschmidt of Squirrel Hill, will become a bar mitzvah Saturday, Sept. 7, at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills. Grandparents are Myra Schnur of Maryland, Arthur Schnur (z”l), and Lidush Goldschmidt of Pittsburgh and Yadin Goldschmidt (z”l).
Charlotte and Jake Titlebaum joyfully announce the birth of their daughter, Cory Pearl Titlebaum, born on July 23, 2024, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cory Pearl is named in loving memory of her late great-uncle, Chuck Kroll, and her late great-great-grandmother, Pearl Carlin. Cory’s Hebrew name, Pnina, is in memory of Pearl Carlin and Cory’s great-grandmother, Pauline Kroll. Proud grandparents are Leslie and Lester Frischman of Squirrel Hill, and Michelle and David Titlebaum of Westport, Connecticut, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Great-grandparents are the late Pauline and Leo Kroll, the late Roslyn and Milton Frischman, Cynthia Weissman of Boca Raton, Florida, Robert Weissman of Stuart, Florida, and the late Carol Weissman, and Phyllis Titlebaum of Naples, Florida, and the late Alan Titlebaum.
Wedding
It is with pride and joy that Renee Abrams announces the wedding of her son Benjamin Arry Abrams to Chaykie Kenner. Their vows were exchanged in an outdoor garden ceremony in Long Beach, California, on July 21, 2024. Chaykie is the daughter of Itta and Shlomo Kenner of Brooklyn, New York, and the granddaughter of Fraidel and the late Shimshon Mandel of Lakewood, New Jersey. Ben is the son of Renee and the late Richard Abrams, and the grandson of the late Mollie and Henry Melnick, and the late Ella and Louis Abrams. PJC
Standing up to the noise
TParshat
Deuteronomy
his week’s Torah reading, Parshas Shoftim, offers guidance for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel when they need to go to war. The verse teaches that before the people go out to battle, the kohen, the priest of God, gets up before the soldiers and reminds them to fear no one, and to remember always where their might in battle derives from: It comes from their trust in Hashem, who accompanies them wherever they go.
make in seeking to prevail against you.
Today in Israel, our heroic Jewish soldiers are fighting for the defense of our land. They must keep in mind always the guidance offered by this week’s Torah reading, in the most literal sense.
But even for us here, thousands of miles away in the United States, these ideas have meaning, too. We, too, must not be cowed by the sound of the shouts. Even as those shouts are getting ever more deafening — and at times, even spill over from opposing Israel’s right to defend itself to opposing the Jews. We, too, must not allow ourselves to be deafened by the noise, to be swayed or deterred from living proudly by our own Jewish ideals.
Antisemitism has taken on so many forms throughout history, and over the centuries we Jews have learned to never allow ourselves to be defined by others’ perception of us.
The Mishnah, the ancient collection of Tannaitic teachings, elaborates on the words of the kohen as follows: “Let not your heart faint; fear not, nor be alarmed, and do not be terrified of them.” (Deuteronomy 20:3)
“Let not your heart faint” due to the neighing of horses and the sharpening of the enemy’s swords. “Fear not” due to the clanging of shields and the noise of their boots. “Nor be alarmed” by the sound of trumpets. “Do not be terrified” due to the sound of shouts. “For Hashem your God is He that goes with you.”
Don’t become scared by the deafening noises of your antagonists, by the clanging of the shields and the sounds of the shouting. Remember that the quiet presence of God, who accompanies you, can accomplish more for you than all the noise your opponents
Antisemitism has taken on so many forms throughout history, and over the centuries we Jews have learned to never allow ourselves to be defined by others’ perception of us. We’ve learned to search within ourselves and within our Torah traditions to understand who we are and what we stand for. We have had to do this so many times before, and today, too, we can and must build on our heritage to be strong in understanding who we are and what our mission is, and to stand firm in the face of all the noise. PJC
Rabbi Levi Langer is the dean of the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.
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Obituaries
BRESS: James Coleman Bress, M.D., died on Aug. 11, 2024, at the age of 87. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School. After high school, Jim attended and graduated from Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. After college, Jim studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, graduating with honors in 1962. After medical school, it was off to Wadsworth VA Hospital in Los Angeles for internship; Montefiore Hospital Pittsburgh for a residency in internal medicine; and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, New York City, for a medical oncology fellowship. Jim joined the Navy during the Vietnam War and was stationed in Washington, D.C. After the Navy, Jim joined his brother Alan in a practice of medical oncology in Pittsburgh. They were early pioneers in oncology and practiced together for 45 years. Jim touched the lives of innumerable patients and was admired for his knowledge, respect, candor and kindness to them and their families. Jim was a very good athlete in his youth. Not only did he play basketball in high school, but he also played varsity basketball all four years of college, starting at center, and was captain of the team his senior year. He was also a longtime enthusiastic fan of Steelers football, Pirates baseball, and Penguins hockey. While in medical school, Jim took an afternoon off to catch the 7th game of the 1960 World Series in which Bill Mazeroski hit a dramatic walk-off homer against the Yankees to win the game and capture the series title. Jim also witnessed the Steelers triumph in Super Bowl XL in Detroit in 2006. Jim loved and is survived by his wife, Michele, and was extremely proud of his two wonderful children, Harley and Courtney. Also, his in-laws, Sarah and Danny Vogus, were much loved by Jim, along with his “sister” Linda Frediani, and many nieces and nephews. Jim has scores of friends and colleagues who will miss him terribly. Michele wants to thank the Cornerstone Hospice team for their invaluable knowledge and help. Arrangements entrusted with Baldwin Brothers Funeral & Cremation Society-Spanish Springs, 352-430-1449. Sentiments are encouraged
FEINGOLD: Yale Feingold of Rockville, Maryland, and formerly of Pittsburgh, passed away at age 100 with his daughters by his side on July 17. He was predeceased by his wife of 70 years, Margery (Zinamon) Feingold. He is survived by his two daughters, Wendy Feingold Diebold (Fred) of Fort Myers, Florida, and Cindy Feingold Miller (Leslie) of Cabin John, Maryland; his two grandsons Justin Miller (Nicole Melnick) and Craig Miller (Jocelyn Baumgarten), and his two great-granddaughters, Reese Miller and Moriah Miller. A private graveside service was held for the family where Yale was put to rest with his beloved Margery.
HARRISON: Daniel Leon Harrison, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Beloved son of David Mark Harrison Jr. and Alice Zeff Harrison. Cherished brother of Stanley (Bonnie) Harrison and Susan Harrison. Devoted uncle of Alexander Harrison and Jake (Sydney) Harrison. Daniel was a kind and thoughtful man who donated his time and energy to making the lives of his family, friends and neighbors easier. He was a proud choir member and Brotherhood volunteer at Rodef Shalom Congregation. His proudest moments were working since childhood with his father, mother, brother and sister at the family business, American Rent-A-Trailer Company. The family wishes there was enough time to share all their memories. Daniel was a fantastic person who will be truly missed by all who knew him. Graveside service and interment were held at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made to Wings for Life USA, Spinal Cord Research Foundation (wingsforlife.com), National Scleroderma Foundation ( scleroderma.org/donate), or the Jewish Defense League. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
SCHAFER: Irwin A. Schafer, M.D. Beloved husband of the late Marion ( née Weinman) Schafer. Loving father of David (Orna) Schafer, Nathan Schafer and Susan (Steven Romanoff) Schafer. Devoted grandfather of Noam (Arlana) Schafer, Natalie (Mike
see Obituaries, page 20
Sunday September 8: Lillian Bergad, Florence Bertenthal, Fannie Cohen, Patty Danovitz, Lena Darling, Rose Gold, Dora F Greene, Bernard J Harris, Jeanette Miller Horowitz, Leah Katz, Pearl Laufe, Selma G Leventon, Natalie Myra Lewis, Harry Malkin, Laura Marcuson, Rabbi Pincus F Miller, Stefanie Ann Miller, Sylvia Monsein, Harry L Richman, Max Roth, Gwen Amy Shakespeare, Howard S Snider, Oscar Wilson, Isadore Sydney Wolfson
Monday September 9: Anna Friedman Calig, Rose Calig, George H Danzinger, Ella Friedman, Edith Goldstein, Liuba Horvitz, William M Katz, Marcel Lucja, Frank Miller, Frances Rosen, Benjamin David Schwartz, Becky Weiner, Annie Wirtzman, Nathan Zapler
Tuesday September 10: Harry Z Davidson, Rabbi Henry Friedman, Helen Handlesman, Samuel E Jacobson, Mimi Lawrence, Pauline Racusin Leventon, Jennie D Miller, Rachel Mintz, Jennie Papernick, Ernst Perlstein, Dora Shaffer, Sarah Snyder, Mildred Tannenbaum, Sophie Tauber, Saul Weis
Wednesday September 11: Joseph Baker, Belle Berman, Harry Dickter, Jacob Dobkin, Marilyn Elikan, Nathan Fisher, Rose Goodstein, Rita Hertz, David Kravitz, Thomas Lewis, Simon Lieberman, Lillian London, Yehudi Marbach, Sadie Margolis, Leon Pattak, Freda Rubin, Alice D Safier, Rebecca Siegal, Lena Thomashefsky, Sarah Zweig
Thursday September 12: Leon Alan Berger, Jean Serbin Burckin, Honey Sue Fink, Esther Kochin, Bert Lasnik, Eva Zawitz Mannheimer, Fannie L Morris, Rebecca Rockman, Sadie Simon Sieff, Harry Siegal, Harry Zeff, Margaret Zelman
Friday September 13: 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
Saturday September 14: 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
Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following:
gift from
“You
Scott E. Seewald, Chair of the Board Jason Kunzman, President and CEO
129th Annual Meeting
Wednesday, September 4 • 5:30 pm JCC Squirrel Hill • Levinson Hall • 5738 Forbes Avenue
Mazel Tov to Our Awardees
• Sharon Werner Rogal-RuslandeR leadeRship awaRd
• Samuel W. Braver s. J. noven Koach awaRd
The Family Forum is hosting a free in-person screening of “Unseen: How We’re Failing Parent Caregivers & Why It Matters,” a documentary that takes a candid look at the challenges faced by parent caregivers.
• Yisrael Klitsner and Lauren Wasser-Klitsner ida and samuel latteRman volunteeR mitzvah awaRd
• League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh loving Kindness awaRd
• Kathy Jones lillian goldstein senioR adult volunteeR awaRd
• Veronica Garcia caplan-liebeR human Relations awaRd
• Rabbi Elimelech Seidman the pittsbuRgh Jewish chRonicle Jcc volunteeR of the YeaR
The Family Forum values the inclusion of all people. Should you need an accommodation to participate in this event please contact Alison Karabin at The Branch, 412-325-0039 or akarabin@thebranchpgh.org
Obituaries
Obituaries:
Continued from page 19
Sittek) Schafer, Zachary (Kristie) Schafer and Lillian Schafer. Great-grandfather of Adinah, Ezra, Lily, Levi, Lilah and Olivia Schafer. Dear brother of Seymour (Loreen) Schafer. Graveside services were held Sunday, Sept. 1, at 1 p.m. at the Beth Shalom Cemetery on Anderson Road, in Pittsburgh. Friends who wish may contribute to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, 2929 Richmond Rd. Beachwood, Ohio 44122 ( maltzmuseum.or g ) or the Beth Shalom Cemetery Fund c/o Congregation Beth Shalom 5915 Beacon St. Pittsburgh, PA. 15217 (bethshalompgh.org).
SCHUGAR: Philip Schugar, on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Beloved husband of the late Isabelle “Issy” Schugar. Son of the late Abe and Rose Schugar. Brother of the late Ira Schugar and Sheila Schugar. Survived by Phyllis Trujillo and children, Michael and Kathy Luciow, Tina and Dan Harrison, Joan and John Luciow, Korey Luciow and Caroline and children, and Matthew Luciow. Philip was a math teacher and guidance counselor. For over 20 years he was the assistant director of personnel and civil service for the City of Pittsburgh and finally as HR director and senior recruiting specialist with AlliedBarton Security. Graveside service and interment were held at Shaare Torah Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC
Family of Holocaust survivor files first wrongful death lawsuit in Boar’s Head listeria outbreak
By Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA
The family of an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Virginia has sued Boar’s Head, claiming that listeria from the meat company’s products is responsible for his death.
The filing is the first wrongful death lawsuit to stem from the Boar’s Head listeria outbreak. So far, more than 50 people have fallen ill in connection with the outbreak and nine have died, including Günter “Garshon” Morgenstein, who survived the Holocaust as a child.
“We’re all still in shock, for all of the things you know that he’s seen and been through in his life to come to that, you know, lunch meat,” his son, Garshon “Shon” Morgenstein, told a local news station.
Morgenstein was born in 1936 in Cottbus, Germany, southeast of Berlin, and survived the Holocaust by hiding under the floorboards of his home during the Holocaust, according to his son, Garshon “Shon” Morgenstein.
from eating a sandwich.”
Morgenstein died on July 18 after being diagnosed with listeria and meningitis. Prior to his illness, he had purchased a Boar’s Head liverwurst sandwich from a grocery store. According to his son, Morgenstein enjoyed eating lunch meats and was a fan of Boar’s Head in particular.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Sarasota, Florida, where Boar’s Head is headquartered.
On July 26, Boar’s Head issued a recall of millions of pounds of its products after the spread of listeria was traced to one of its plants in Virginia.
In a statement, the company said it was investigating how its liverwurst became “adulterated.” It has temporarily closed the plant in question.
The evening will conclude with a reception in Palm Court.
In 1954, Morgenstein fled East Berlin with few possessions and headed to the United States, according to USA Today. He became a “master hair designer” and was well known in the Newport News, Virginia community. He met his wife, Peggy, in a salon, and his clients included Johnny Mathis and Muhammad Ali. He was still working until he fell ill.
“Günter was a very active and vibrant personality and was still working right up until his illness,” Ron Simon, the attorney representing Morgenstein’s family, said in a statement. “He should not have died
“We deeply regret the impact this recall has had on affected families,” the statement said. “No words can fully express our sympathies and the sincere and deep hurt we feel for those who have suffered losses or endured illness.”
Morgenstein is survived by his son, two daughters, and wife Peggy. PJC
p A listeria outbreak in Boar’s Head deli meats led to a recall of millions of pounds of the brand’s products.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Life & Culture
This year’s High Holiday kids’ books are a celebration of Jewish diversity
By Penny Schwartz | JTA
The enduring traditions of the High Holiday season take shape across time and place in the latest crop of children’s books about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
This year’s books transport readers back to biblical times; whiz them to the oldworld streets of Istanbul; remember the etrog trade in 18th-century New York City; and celebrate harvest festivals from very different cultures. All of them beckon families with stories that display the rich diversity in Jewish culture.
Here’s your roundup of new children’s High Holidays books for 2024.
“A Turkish Rosh Hashanah” Etan Basseri; illustrated by Zeynep Özatalay Kalaniot Books; ages 5-9
In this heartwarming story, Rafael, a young Jewish boy in Istanbul, wishes his grandmother Nona, and his cousins Alegra and Leon, “anyada buena,” the Judeo-Spanish greeting for a happy new year shared by Sephardic Jews at Rosh Hashanah. Kids follow the cousins at the bustling outdoor market, where they help Nona shop for the
ceremonial foods they will enjoy that evening at their traditional Sephardic meal. The cousins’ excitement is briefly dampened when an older kid bullies them while they shop. But Alegra courageously uses her voice to stand up to him, leading the way for Rafael and Leon to speak out, as well. A playful pack of friendly cats gets in on the action, keeping it light. When the family gathers for the holiday, Nona praises the kids for their teamwork. The book concludes with an author’s note about Sephardic customs and a handy glossary.
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“Max and the Not-So-Perfect Apology”
Carl Harris Shuman; illustrated by Rory Walker and Michael Garton Apples & Honey Press; ages 6-8
In this cartoon-style page-turner, readers meet Max, a young inventor who saves time in the morning by washing only one side of his face. When Max and his best friend Emma join forces for their Torahclass project about the biblical story of Jacob and his brother Esau, Max is determined to win first prize. But when their teacher arranges different teams, jealousy and feelings of being left out t hreaten their friendship. It’s a perfect set-up for a fun-filled adventure when Max powers up his time-travel machine, this time without his co-pilot Jin Emma. He lands in Ancient Israel, where plenty of jokes between Max and Jacob, his son Joseph and Esau will have kids chuckling. There are meaningful lessons to be shared about forgiveness that reflect the themes of Yom Kippur.
“An Etrog from Across the Sea”
Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky; illustrated by Stacey Dressen McQueen Kar-Ben; ages 4-10
Award-winning authors Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky team up in a charming Sukkot tale lavishly illustrated by Stacey Dressen. Set in the early 18th century, a Sephardic Jewish family travels by stagecoach from their country home to New York City to their grandfather Luis’ large house. Leah, her brother Aaron and their mother eagerly await Papa’s return from his travels from Corsica in time for Rosh Hashanah. In a postcard, Papa has promised to bring home a perfect etrog — the fragrant citrus fruit used during Sukkot. But when Papa doesn’t arrive, they fear something is wrong. Grandpapa Luis comforts Rachel with a beautiful silver etrog cup. But will her papa return for Sukkot, bringing the promised etrog? To everyone’s relief, Papa returns home just in time, and the etrog finds its home in Leah’s silver cup. In an author’s note, families learn that the story is based on the life of Luis Moises Gomez (16601740), a prosperous merchant and trader from Britain who settled in New York.
“Mixed-Up Mooncakes”
Christina Matula and Erica Lyons; illustrated by Tracy Subisak Quill-Tree Books; ages 4-8
A Jewish mother who lives in Hong Kong is one of the co-authors of a story featuring a young girl whose family celebrates two harvest holidays: Sukkot and the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. Ruby shops separately with her Chinese Nainai and her Jewish Zayde for supplies for the holidays, but she craves some way to combine them. Like other recent books such as “Two New Years” and “The Very Best Sukkah,” the book illuminates connections between different traditions for readers who appreciate learning about the world and want to see contemporary models of Jewish family represented in children’s literature.
“Sammy Spider’s First Book of Jewish Holidays”
Sylvia A. Rouss; illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn Kar-Ben; ages 1-4
Possibly the most famous character in Jewish children’s literature, Sammy Spider is back in board-book form in an introductory text about the Jewish holiday cycle. Starting with the fall holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah, the book continues through Shavuot in spring, showing the friendly young arachnid who enjoys spinning his web in the home of a Jewish family.
“One More Story, Tata!”
Julie Salamon; illustrated by Jill Weber Minerva Books; ages 4-8
In their newest collaboration, Julie Salamon and Jill Weber hit the mark with a charming, beautifully illustrated intergenerational story about a young girl named Ruby, her grandparents, and great-grandmother Tata. Every weekend, when Ruby visits, Tata enchants her with stories imagined from her dreams. On Friday nights, they gather around the Shabbat table and light candles, share challah and enjoy a festive meal.
“Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman”
Ann Diament Koffsky; illustrated by Abigail Rajunov Little Bee Books; ages 4-8
Kids will cheer as they follow a rising young ping-pong star named Estee who aces all her competitions. Every Shabbat, Estee takes a break from the fast-paced game to go to synagogue and later, to enjoy the company of her family and friends. But when Estee qualifies for the national championship that will be held on a Saturday, she faces a hard choice. In the back pages of this action-packed, cartoonstyle book, readers discover the real-life story of Estee Ackerman, who gave up the chance to compete in the national table tennis championship when she was just 11 years old, because it was held on a Saturday. The following year, Estee won the gold medal at the nationals, gratified by the knowledge that she had honored her values and her religion. PJC
Collage courtesy of JTA
Colorful start to the year Students at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh Boys High School spent the first day of school at Fox’s Den Paintball.
Photo by Danie Oberman
What a grate event
Community members and students gathered for a Labor Day BBQ in Oakland hosted by Chabad at Pitt.
p Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism show support in Schenley Plaza. program.
Photos courtesy of Chabad at Pitt
